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	<title>The Periapex &#187; Dentists</title>
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	<link>http://www.endodontics.ca</link>
	<description>I am Lesion, for there are many.</description>
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		<title>Volunteerism.</title>
		<link>http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/10/16/volunteerism/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=volunteerism</link>
		<comments>http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/10/16/volunteerism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:13:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Periapex</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Dentists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endodontics.ca/?p=1154</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So let&#8217;s say that I&#8217;m sitting here in front of my computer and contemplating life and death and how well life has treated me over the years. Maybe it was God&#8217;s will or maybe it was just having a positive, thankful attitude as I &#8220;grew&#8221; up. Whatever it was, let&#8217;s just say that I&#8217;m sitting [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a title="Galapagos Dental Clinic by Peri Apex, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/periapex/3952416243/"><img class="alignright" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2554/3952416243_5e29e47680_m.jpg" alt="Galapagos Dental Clinic" width="240" height="160" /></a>So let&#8217;s say that I&#8217;m sitting here in front of my computer and contemplating life and death and how well life has treated me over the years. Maybe it was God&#8217;s will or maybe it was just having a positive, thankful attitude as I &#8220;grew&#8221; up. Whatever it was, let&#8217;s just say that I&#8217;m sitting here feeling that life has given me many lessons over the years but in the end has brought me more happiness than sadness.</p>
<p>And let&#8217;s say that as i dwell on these feelings I develop an urge to give something back &#8212; something unique, helpful, and selfless.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m a dentist.</p>
<p>I was forced through crazy challenges in school to get to where I am. I&#8217;ve been through another school &#8212; the school of hard knocks &#8212; through my career, and I&#8217;ve survived. In fact I&#8217;ve become an awesome dentist because of Hard Knocks.</p>
<p>I need to give back, but I don&#8217;t want to give my hard earned money away anonymously to local charities that I don&#8217;t know anything about. I&#8217;m pretty content with the couple of bucks I give to my church every week or ten. My skills are too valuable to not utilize as much as I possibly can fixing people&#8217;s teeth, so I don&#8217;t have time to volunteer at the food bank.</p>
<p>I feel the need to give back though. Where can I apply my unique skills and knowledge to help people? Where can I do this and show them how skillful and knowledgeable I am, where these people would love me and line up to see me, where I would be &#8220;The Man&#8221; to them. El Hombre&#8230;.spanish&#8230;latin&#8230;.</p>
<p>Guatamala, Honduras, Mexico. Hmm.</p>
<p>Wow. I see it now! I can collect equipment and supplies from donors from whom I buy lots of stuff at my practice. I might be able to enlist some dental students to come and help out. I don&#8217;t care if I have to pay to travel and stay down south because it&#8217;s money well spent to help people. The homeless here in my town don&#8217;t need my money like these people do.</p>
<p>When I get down there I&#8217;ll show them how much better dentistry in Canada is than in their impoverished community. I&#8217;ll put in white fillings, save their teeth rather than pull them, use anesthetic, and wear a mask and gloves. I&#8217;ll *help* them. The line to see me will be days long. Unfortunately, as much as I&#8217;d love to help these people forever, I have to come back home to make some money. Maybe I&#8217;ll stay for a week or two.</p>
<p>I do wonder, though, what might happen after I leave. Might these people not want to see their tooth-pulling, painful dentist anymore? Will they wait and wait and wait for my return while losing tooth after tooth unnaturally? Will that be because they&#8217;ve lost confidence in the entire medical or dental system in their country? Would I have caused that?</p>
<p>There would be no lines to see their dentist and so no encouragement of the local profession to improve. I would have decreased national morale among both dentists and their patients and I might not be welcomed back again. I might single-handedly cripple an already precariously perched medical/dental system &#8212; all because I wanted to feel good about myself.</p>
<p>So&#8230;maybe what I&#8217;ll do instead of all of that is take my supplies and equipment and dental students and go to the local health department down there. I&#8217;ll tell them that we&#8217;re only there for a couple of weeks and we want to help. Have no doubt that we will help. We will suction, mix, clean, and offer advice to the local dentists. We will show them how to use the materials we are supplying. We will show them how we do things by allowing them to do the things themselves while we watch. This is positive, this creates growth, this is beyond ego, and is the greatest thing that we as a human can do.</p>
<p>But how many of us who volunteer do this? How many of us would even want to be seen as subservient to the local professional in that small community you want to help? How many of us need to grow up a bit?</p>
<hr />
<p><small>© Periapex for <a href="http://www.endodontics.ca">The Periapex</a>, 2010. |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/10/16/volunteerism/">Permalink</a> |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/10/16/volunteerism/#comments">7 comments</a> |
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</small></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
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		<title>Is Your Dentist a Spoiled Brat?</title>
		<link>http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/04/24/is-your-dentist-a-spoiled-brat/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=is-your-dentist-a-spoiled-brat</link>
		<comments>http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/04/24/is-your-dentist-a-spoiled-brat/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:44:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Periapex</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Dentists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diagnosis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retreatment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endodontics.ca/?p=1125</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are certain referring dentists with whom I work well and there are others who have tried me out in the past, but for various reasons send elsewhere now. No hard feelings, no worries. Just as you can&#8217;t please every patient, you can&#8217;t be everything to every dentist either. The patient comes first, and if [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There are certain referring dentists with whom I work well and there are others who have tried me out in the past, but for various reasons send elsewhere now. No hard feelings, no worries.</p>
<p>Just as you can&#8217;t please every patient, you can&#8217;t be everything to every dentist either. The patient comes first, and if they get more streamlined, effective care via a different generalist-specialist combination, I&#8217;m fine with that.</p>
<p>You two or three constant readers of my blog know that I have no problem with patients or dentists looking elsewhere for treatment if they don&#8217;t want to abide by my office policies. My treatment philosophies and office policies are what they are for very good reasons and were developed through my years of practice from both scientific evidence and experience.</p>
<p>And yet there are still dentists that try to bully me every now and then. I still have a few things to learn about dealing with them. I react impulsively and aggressively.</p>
<p>Thanks to my co-workers I&#8217;ve been able to keep myself under control with this latest episode. They really are the best and I am unfathomably lucky to have them watching over me.</p>
<p><span id="more-1125"></span><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1126" title="Mar,01_10" src="http://www.endodontics.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Mar01_10-300x232.jpg" alt="Mar,01_10" width="300" height="232" />The case in discussion is that back molar.</p>
<p>A different dentist than the patient&#8217;s current idiot DDS did the root canal work and then the crown. From the film, you can see that the restorative work was not done well. There&#8217;s a poor restorative margin that is probably leaking (causing the recurrent root canal infection) and there is no satisfactory <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_lengthening">ferrule</a> for the crown.</p>
<p>Retreatment of the previous root canal work is the obvious way to attempt elimination of the current infection. However, with the inadequate coronal restoration kept in place, the prognosis of the retreatment over the long-term is poor. This is simply because the probability that leakage of bacteria under the crown is occurring will not change unless the restoration is improved.</p>
<p>My recommendations for treatment were for the patient to have her dentist remove the crown and possibly the core, then assess restorability and/or the need for crown lengthening. If he thought that the tooth was workable from that perspective, I could redo the root canal and say that the prognosis is good.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s his first email to me:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hello [me],</p>
<p>I opened the crown on #37 today and accesed the pulp chamber and 2  treated canals. Because the mesial wall (composite) is intact and selaed  from a pulpal aspect,  I closed the case and have referred back to you  for retreatment of the case.  I will then restore the access and mesial  wall with bonded amalgam to establish as good of a coronal seal as  possible as pt. cannot afford to replace the crown at this time.</p>
<p>Although the mesisal and distal canal seemed centered in a rather  mutilated pulp chamber, I am concerned that if the coronal seal was ok  is there an untrreated canal?</p>
<p>You are seeing L later this month for the retreatment.</p>
<p>Sincerely,<br />
[him]</p></blockquote>
<p>This is my reply. I was concerned, maybe a little pissed, that my instructions weren&#8217;t followed. On top of that he&#8217;s suggesting that another canal might be the problem. Did he tell the patient this? If so, what if I see that there isn&#8217;t another canal? Will the patient then be confused as to why there&#8217;s infection in the tooth (since he apparently saw that everything was sealed well internally)? Also, the pulp chamber seems far from mutilated on the pre-op film. What problems has he caused me now by trying to help me out in his own way?</p>
<blockquote><p>Hi [him], thanks for the email.</p>
<p>Without crown (and  possibly core) removal there is no way to be certain that the current  restorative margin is not carious. The current restorative situation  with this tooth is wholly inadequate. Coronal leakage can be occuring at  a microscopic level (since I&#8217;m talking about bacteria, not saliva).</p>
<p>It is possible that there is another canal, however,  the best sealed canals will eventually become infected if the  restorative seal fails even minimally over time (with recurrent caries  or structural failure).</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll take a look around and clean things up the best  I can once I get into the tooth. L will be told that the  prognosis of the tooth from my perspective, though, is now guarded.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the heads up.</p></blockquote>
<p>This was his reply:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hi [me],</p>
<p>Firstly, please forgive my frank approach with you today but I am going to be brutally honest.</p>
<p>I am fully aprised of what bacterial leakage is, and what it can yeild as far as reinfection.</p>
<p>But from a restorative perspective I am not going to take the crown off  #37or further impair the coronal seal as it exists because I may not be able to restablish as good of a seal temporarily( due to concerns about control of mesial marginal blood/fluid contamination below the tissue level for bonding seal) as currently exists to satisfy your desires prior to an endo retx. I determined this after opening the case because you would not.  And taking the crown off entirely commits the patient to a new crown which she can&#8217;t afford. So alternatively should we just extract the tooth? No, I think with your endo expertise, and my restorative epertise we can collectively establish an accetable seal endodontically and restoratively so that the pt. may function with this tooth for some time.</p>
<p>And she is aware of the risk. I agree the crown is not pretty, but aside from the mesial margin it is not that bad form a marginal perspective. In fact from the outer dimensions of the crown and the dentist who did it may have been under-prepared.</p>
<p>So even if is leaking somewhat, big deal! Do the endo retx!<br />
Then I can restore this case with a panavia bonded amalgam resoration in short order (as already explained), which will allow a one peice sealed resoration with amalgam posts,  and mesial wall recreated  in amalgam. BELEIVE ME I HAVE DONE IT MANY TIMES SUCCESSFULLY. If in the future L can afford a new crown, I will replace the crown at that time gladly.</p>
<p>You can&#8217;t have everthing perfect for every case my experience, because not every patient can afford the time nor the expense for your desires. But you can&#8217;t simply cast these  patients away, can you?</p>
<p>Yes I agree, removing the crown and endo retx and possibly castpost core and a new crown would be great, but L can&#8217;t afford it. She has already having to absorb the cost of time off work, travel, etc.</p>
<p>So again, I have completed a liberal access so as to remove almost all the existing composite core (under 12x magnification) except for the mesial wall which is intact with some affected dentin left in place. Now you can complete the endo retx with your expertise and see if a canal has been been missed. Then I will restore the case with bonded amalgam. Yes the case is compromised and has a  guarded prognosis, but the patient is fully aware of this as I have reviewed it with her at length.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t refer to you regularily because I established endo referral sources when I worked as an associate at Yonge and Eglington for 4 years. But I can tell you this, in TO I would have referred this case had it retreated in one appointment, and now I would be shortly restoring it, case finished for obsevration.</p>
<p>I remember in my 4rth year at UofT when you were trying to take alginate impressions of B, your endo classmate, for a hockey mouth guard and failed on several attempts in clinic next to me.  And I thouht to myself , this guy has no clinical experience at all as a restorative dentist. Now that I have been practising general dentistry as long as you have endodontics, I need to rely on your expertise, and you need to rely on mine as well.</p>
<p>Additionally, now that your office office has spoken with L and confused her, and clearly undermined my clinical judgement, she will certainly now have doubts about both of our capabilities, a rather unfortunate and inexperineced move on your part don&#8217;t you think? Next time you may wish to consider just picking up the phone and calling the dentist personally to discuss the case.</p>
<p>In closing, I suppose you can choose to not treat L, but instead I would suggest you do, and we move foward with and perform the best service we can collectively for L given the limitiations of this case.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>[him]</p></blockquote>
<p>My reply:</p>
<blockquote><p>That gave me a chuckle.</p>
<p>As I said before: L&#8217;s  consent form for endodontic retreatment in my office will say that the  prognosis is guarded.</p></blockquote>
<p>Then he sent me something again saying it&#8217;s not a chuckling matter.</p>
<p>I decided to not bother continuing the inane conversation. My thinking is that if Patient L doesn&#8217;t have the money for a new crown, she shouldn&#8217;t be spending what little she does have on an expensive retreatment that will fail at some point.</p>
<p>Patient L ended up calling to let us know that she decided that she will go ahead with the crown after all. I&#8217;ve decided that her consent form will read that the prognosis of the retreatment is good (about 85%) depending upon the quality of the final restoration.</p>
<p>Because idiot dentist hasn&#8217;t properly worked the case up for a new crown by evaluating the prognosis or need for crown lengthening and providing that cost information to Patient L (all as I previously requested), poor Patient L will likely not improve her odds with this tooth by spending the extra money on a crown at this point.</p>
<p>She, not I, is unfortunately the one who will suffer most from this guy&#8217;s inflated ego.</p>
<hr />
<p><small>© Periapex for <a href="http://www.endodontics.ca">The Periapex</a>, 2010. |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/04/24/is-your-dentist-a-spoiled-brat/">Permalink</a> |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/04/24/is-your-dentist-a-spoiled-brat/#comments">4 comments</a> |
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		<title>Poor Restorative Margins?</title>
		<link>http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/01/26/poor-restorative-margins/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=poor-restorative-margins</link>
		<comments>http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/01/26/poor-restorative-margins/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:12:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Periapex</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Dentists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endodontics.ca/?p=1074</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just got a phone message from a referring dentist that I was hoping had stopped referring patients my way. The reason for that is a long story in itself and for a post some other day. The back-story revolves around a patient from this dentist whom I saw for a consultation last week. She&#8217;d had [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Just got a phone message from a referring dentist that I was hoping had stopped referring patients my way. The reason for that is a long story in itself and for a post some other day.</p>
<p>The back-story revolves around a patient from this dentist whom I saw for a consultation last week. She&#8217;d had root canal treatment done fairly recently and is experiencing persistent, residual symptoms. In my letter back to the dentist I mentioned, among other observations, &#8220;poor interproximal restorative margins&#8221;.</p>
<p>So this patient&#8217;s dentist calls today and says that she doesn&#8217;t see poor restorative margins on the PA that she has of the tooth (a recent PA of which I have a copy). She&#8217;s not sure where my assumption of poor restorative margins came from and would like a copy of my PA to see what I saw.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s my PA which is not really significantly different from her PA &#8212; and this is just what you can see on film. My explorer got stuck under the mesial margin so heavily that I could probably have pulled that whole filling out if I had applied more force.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1075" title="GreAng21Jan10" src="http://www.endodontics.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/GreAng21Jan10-300x200.jpg" alt="GreAng21Jan10" width="300" height="200" /></p>
<hr />
<p><small>© Periapex for <a href="http://www.endodontics.ca">The Periapex</a>, 2010. |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/01/26/poor-restorative-margins/">Permalink</a> |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2010/01/26/poor-restorative-margins/#comments">4 comments</a> |
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</small></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<title>Dear Other Endodontist In Town.</title>
		<link>http://www.endodontics.ca/2009/04/01/dear-other-endodontist-in-town/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=dear-other-endodontist-in-town</link>
		<comments>http://www.endodontics.ca/2009/04/01/dear-other-endodontist-in-town/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:45:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Periapex</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Dentists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.endodontics.ca/?p=942</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Dear Other Endodontist In Town, You are a nice guy and everything, but I wanted to send you a note to say that you are embarrassing me. In fact, you are degrading the specialty of Endodontics as a whole. When you do work like this and tell the patient that everything is good and then [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Dear Other Endodontist In Town,</p>
<p>You are a nice guy and everything, but I wanted to send you a note to say that you are embarrassing me. In fact, you are degrading the specialty of Endodontics as a whole.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.endodontics.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/madch.jpg" alt="Vertical Bitewing" title="Vertical Bitewing" width="273" height="411" class="alignright size-full wp-image-941" />When you do work like this and tell the patient that everything is good and then the patient ends up seeing me a short time later with persistent or recurrent issues I end up having to do lots of damage control. After all, this tooth was treated by an endodontist, and he didn&#8217;t say that he had any trouble with the tooth.</p>
<p>In fact you did have trouble getting around the curve in the MB root. You had trouble getting the job done properly in the excessively short amount of time that you booked for the treatment. So much, in fact, that you over-instrumented the coronal aspects of all the canals and then created a strip perforation on the distal aspect of the MB root.</p>
<p>I have seen better work done by a dental student. Shame on you, and shame on the rest of us for allowing you to pass your specialty certification exams. A higher standard of treatment is implicit in the referral of the patient to your office.</p>
<p>Or maybe you were more conscientious and skillful in the past and for medical reasons you are not physically capable of doing better work now; or maybe greed has gotten in the way?</p>
<p>As specialists, when we fuck a tooth up, we always do a first class job &#8212; So much so that I have recommended that your patient have this tooth extracted. It is unlikely that I will be able to get around your ledged curve, fix your perforation, fix the obturation in the other canals, and leave the tooth strong for the long-term. In this case an implant is a better option than retreatment.</p>
<p>Stuff hits the fan in specialty offices all the time, it&#8217;s unavoidable when we see the tough cases. It&#8217;s always a good idea to be up-front with your patients and explain these complications or unexpected results to them. They usually understand that you tried your best.</p>
<p>They are hard-pressed to think you tried your best when those unexpected results and complications are explained after the fact from one of your peers.</p>
<p>Yours Sincerely,</p>
<p>Peri Apex, The Other Endodontist In Town.</p>
<hr />
<p><small>© Periapex for <a href="http://www.endodontics.ca">The Periapex</a>, 2009. |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2009/04/01/dear-other-endodontist-in-town/">Permalink</a> |
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		<slash:comments>14</slash:comments>
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		<title>To Each Their Own (Opinion).</title>
		<link>http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/03/27/to-each-their-own-opinion/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=to-each-their-own-opinion</link>
		<comments>http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/03/27/to-each-their-own-opinion/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ameloblast</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Dentists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.enfusion-group.org/~anthony/blog/?p=213</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ignorance is bliss isn&#8217;t it. I feel sorry for this commenter&#8217;s patients. This is an answer to this question at Yahoo Answers. HeatherS, you I suppose you are expecting an answer from me.I don&#8217;t how how long ago you graduated from dental school, so perhaps you&#8217;ve been in practice so long that you&#8217;ve just learned [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ignorance is bliss isn&#8217;t it. I feel sorry for this commenter&#8217;s patients. This is an answer to <a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiHPPkn4hZR_fAmbno1jc4Tty6IX?qid=20070324205808AAPCupn&amp;show=7#profile-info-bb8740cbd7c94be820535e8abb6199fcaa">this question </a>at Yahoo Answers.</p>
<blockquote><p>HeatherS, you I suppose you are expecting an answer from me.I don&#8217;t how how long ago you graduated from dental school, so perhaps you&#8217;ve been in practice so long that you&#8217;ve just learned to accept the status-quo.</p>
<p>There is a horrendous problem in the dental profession, both at the educational level and the pratical level. There are ten different kinds of dental doctors, 9 of whom deal with problems almost exclusively within the confines of the mouth&#8211;a hole in the head the size of a tennis ball. Obviously, there&#8217;s not much turf to go around, so what happens? 1. you get a lot of overlap between the jobs of specialists, and 2. you get specialists who isolate their practices to very few types of problems and procedures.</p>
<p>Take endodontists for example. There is absolutely no justification for their existence. None whatsoever. How do I know this? Because the scope of their work is exceedingly limited (root canals, endo retreatments, post spaces, apexification procedures, and apicoectomies), . So limited in fact, that it could easily be incorporated into a dental school curriculum for general dentists to learn. Certainly, any general dentist (with a little bit of practice) can learn to do all of these procedures. I did.</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that there are general dentists who don&#8217;t know how to do it and don&#8217;t want to learn, Why? Because they don&#8217;t want to bother with it and because they know they can make more money performing crown and bridge. And of course, there are plenty of endodontists who are just happy to feed off these lazy, greedy dentists, doing root canals day in and day out at literally 150% or more the cost of a root canal performed by a general dentist.</p>
<p>This approach does not serve the dental profession well. It makes us look absolutely ridiculous! The fact that a patient who comes in with an endodontic tooth problem and cannot be treated by his dentist sounds preposterous. Moreover, it doesn&#8217;t serve the patient well.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re too incompetent to do your own molar endo with similar speed and quality as an endodontist, you shouldn&#8217;t have a license to practice dentistry.</p>
<p>I am also a firm believer that periodontics and orthodontics should not exist either. These are services that general dentists should be able to perform as well. How do I know this? Because there are many general dentists who perform all of their own perio surgeries and general dentists who handle all of their own ortho!</p>
<p>Same with prosthodontics and pedodontics.</p>
<p>With the exception of oral and maxillofacial surgery and oral path, none of the dental specialties are sciences that are diverse enough to warrant doctors who study them exclusively (the way a cardiologist studies cardiology, or a plastic surgeon studies plastic surgery, or an ENT studies the head and neck). Endodontics, ortho, pedo, prosth are all tiny disciplines that can easily be incorporated into the scope of a general dentists practice.</p>
<p>But they&#8217;re not. Why? Because everyone with a DDS or DMD is interested in making money&#8230;especially the specialists. And the schools are more interested in preserving the work-load for the specialists by keeping their students ignorant of anything but the most basic endo, pedo, prosth, and teaching them absolutely nothing about ortho.</p>
<p>Think about it this way, Heather: what type of work is unique to the general dentist? Fillings. That&#8217;s it. That is the only kind of work we do for which there isn&#8217;t a specialist.</p>
<p>This doesn&#8217;t strike you as absolutely ridiculous?</p>
<p>DR. SAM &amp; DR. ALBERT:</p>
<p>Dr. Sam, you said it yourself: you don&#8217;t do molar endo because it &#8220;disrputs your schedule&#8221; and because the endodontist can do it faster. Ask yourself this: what if endodontists didn&#8217;t exist? General dentists would become more competent at molar endo! And, patients wouldn&#8217;t be charged the specialist premium for a procedure that a general dentist OUGHT to be able to do!</p>
<p>Dentistry should consist of three types of doctors: general dentists, oral pathologists, and oral surgeons. Why do I say this? Because there are general dentists who treat kids, perform ortho, perform all their molar endo, perform their own perio surgery, their own prosthodontic work, etc. Oral pathologists cover the diseases of the oral cavity and maxillofacial region, and oral surgeons are there to handle the more involved surgeries (i.e. orthognathics, vestibuloplasties, pathology, etc.). Between these three doctors (if general dentists were trained PROPERLY in dental school), everything within the dental profession would be covered. Everything. But that will never happen because there are too many general dentists who are perfectly content sticking with the money-making routine work and too many specialists perfectly content doing root canals and sedating kids day in/day out for obscenely high fees.</p>
<p>I perform the majority of my third molar extractions, virtually all of my preprosthetic surgeries, and 99.999 percent of my extractions of surgically-erupted teeth. I also treat many children, and when I get training to sedate patients, I will treat all of my pediatric cases. I also perform virtually all of my own endo, referring to endodontists the cases that are borderline hopeless (and often turn out to be untreatable).</p>
<p>I am am under 5 years in private practice, mind you. I have a long way to go in my career and thus plenty of time to learn to do the things we general dentists SHOULD have been taught in school.</p></blockquote>
<p>The poster tried to suck me into a pointless argument <a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjKTS2jIObo6g3XFrSZx3fPsy6IX?qid=20070325125638AAIwQWl&amp;show=7#profile-info-AA12136927">here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p><small>© Ameloblast for <a href="http://www.endodontics.ca">The Periapex</a>, 2007. |
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<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/03/27/to-each-their-own-opinion/#comments">6 comments</a> |
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		<title>Conversation With an Orthodontist.</title>
		<link>http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/01/10/conversation-with-an-orthodontist/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=conversation-with-an-orthodontist</link>
		<comments>http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/01/10/conversation-with-an-orthodontist/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ameloblast</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Dentists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Resorption]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.enfusion-group.org/~anthony/blog/?p=147</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[She: Thanks for returning my call. Me: No problem, how are you? She: Good thanks. I wanted to ask you; remember that girl that I recently sent you with the internal resorption? Me: Yeah, but I diagnosed it as invasive cervical resorption which isn&#8217;t really internal resorption. I sent you a report. She: Yeah well [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>She: Thanks for returning my call.</p>
<p>Me: No problem, how are you?</p>
<p>She: Good thanks. I wanted to ask you; remember that girl that I recently sent you with the internal resorption?</p>
<p>Me: Yeah, but I diagnosed it as invasive cervical resorption which isn&#8217;t really internal resorption. I sent you a report.</p>
<p>She: Yeah well after you worked on the tooth to try to save it and found that the internal resorption was too extensive I called her Mom.</p>
<p>Me: Uh huh.</p>
<p>She: Mom was very cool..ish.</p>
<p>Me: As in cold?</p>
<p>She: Well yeah. I got the sense while talking to her that someone had told her that the orthodontic treatment was responsible for the internal resorption.</p>
<p>Me: I&#8217;m pretty sure it wasn&#8217;t internal resorption. Internal resorption is a pulpal phenomenon, external resorption can become very invasive and sometimes resemble internal cervical resorption, but is actually an issue with periodontal cells.</p>
<p>She: Yeah, well I spoke to the oral radiologist that I know that works cases with me and I asked her if internal resorption can be caused by ortho and she said absolutely not.</p>
<p>Me: Well she&#8217;s probably right. External resorption, on the other hand, happens when osteoclasts get a little confused. Trauma and internal bleaching can do this. Ortho is controlled trauma, so it stands to reason that it could be responsible for cervical resorption.</p>
<p>She: Well in my 30 years of doing Ortho the only two cases of internal resorption I&#8217;ve seen have happened in the last year and I&#8217;ve sent both to you. Neither of them appear to be related to Ortho (the first one existed prior to my treatment) and the radiologist says that the second one isn&#8217;t related.</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> The first case was diagnosed by the same radiologist as dens-in-dente. I confirmed this once I saw the patient and recommended no treatment. The second patient has been in retention for the last couple of years, the orthodontist didn&#8217;t see any problems with her teeth on a recent check, but a scheduled recall at the girl&#8217;s GP a short time after turned up a pretty bad case of pink tooth. The dentist really scared the girl and her mom about how the tooth would be lost, blah, blah. The upset mom called the orthodontist who then called me to give me the heads up and the referral. Turned out that the prognosis of the tooth was poor to hopeless.</p>
<p>Me: Well I told the Mom that these resorptive defects are often idiopathic, but orthodontics can be implicated in some of them. They happen rarely enough that their development is unpredictable however. I implied no negligence. I don&#8217;t know if her dentist did, however.</p>
<p>She: Ok, well, I just wanted to find out who told the Mom that the orthodontics caused the problem.</p>
<p>Me: Sounds like you&#8217;re worried she wants something?</p>
<p>She: No I&#8217;m not worried, I just don&#8217;t like people assigning guilt.</p>
<p>Me: Me neither. I&#8217;m not in that business, and doing that hurts my business. You know that, you get your patients from the same sources.</p>
<p>She: I&#8217;m sending the Mom a letter that shows the results of my research. I wasn&#8217;t able to find any implication between orthodontics and internal resorption. And I quote the radiologist as saying there&#8217;s no connection.</p>
<p>Me: Don&#8217;t you think that doing all of that makes it look like you&#8217;re worried about something?</p>
<p>She: No I asked the Mom if she wanted more information on resorption and she said yes.</p>
<p>Me: Ok then.</p>
<p>She: It&#8217;s really too bad so many of us have to boost our egos by blaming others for this and that. Don&#8217;t you think?</p>
<p>Me: Yup.</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> Ok, I&#8217;m getting a little worked up now cuz she&#8217;s been wasting my time for the last 10 minutes and I&#8217;ve got lots of other people to blame for things.</p>
<p>She: Yeah, you know, when her mom told me that she was told that ortho could have caused the problem, I went to the library and looked and looked for that connection.</p>
<p>Me: Uh huh. Well anyway, seems like things are working out for you. I&#8217;ve told the family to speak to their dentist about replacement options for the tooth.</p>
<p>She: Ok then. Talk to you later.</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s Note:</strong> I hope not.<br />
Do you think it was bad of me to have faxed the following to her the next morning?</p>
<blockquote><p><em><strong>Invasive cervical resorption: an analysis of potential predisposing factors</strong></em>.Heithersay GS.</p>
<p>Department of Dentistry, University of Adelaide, Australia.</p>
<p>OBJECTIVE: An investigation was undertaken to assess potential predisposing factors to invasive cervical resorption.</p>
<p>METHOD AND MATERIALS: A group of 222 patients with a total of 257 teeth displaying varying degrees of invasive cervical resorption were analyzed. Potential predisposing factors, including trauma, intracoronal bleaching, surgery, orthodontics, periodontal root scaling or planing, bruxism, delayed eruption, developmental defects, and restorations were assessed from the patients&#8217; history and oral examination.</p>
<p>RESULTS: <strong>Of the potential predisposing factors identified, orthodontics was the most common sole factor, constituting 21.2% of patients and 24.1% of teeth examined</strong>. Other factors were present in an additional 5.0% of orthodontically treated patients (4.3% of teeth), and these consisted principally of trauma and/or intracoronal bleaching. Trauma was the second most frequent sole factor (14.0% of patients and 15.1% of teeth). Trauma in combination with intracoronal bleaching, orthodontics, or delayed eruption constituted an additional 11.2% of patients (10.6% of teeth). Intracoronal bleaching was found to be the sole potential predisposing factor in 4.5% of patients and 3.9% of teeth, and an additional 10.4% of patients and 9.7% of teeth showed a combination of intracoronal bleaching with trauma and/or orthodontics. Surgery, particularly involving the cementoenamel junction area, was a sole potential predisposing factor in 6.3% of patients and 5.4% of teeth. Periodontal therapy, including deep root scaling and planing, showed a low incidence, as did other factors, such as bruxism and developmental defects. The presence of an intracoronal restoration was the only identifiable factor in 15.3% of patients and 14.4% of teeth, while 15.0% of patients and 16.4% of teeth showed no identifiable potential pedisposing factors.</p>
<p>CONCLUSION: These results indicated a strong association between invasive cervical resorption and orthodontic treatment, trauma, and intracoronal bleaching, either alone or in combination.</p>
<p>Quintessence Int. 1999 Feb;30(2):83-95</p></blockquote>
<p>She hasn&#8217;t bothered to talk to me later as yet. She probably won&#8217;t send anymore patients either.</p>
<hr />
<p><small>© Ameloblast for <a href="http://www.endodontics.ca">The Periapex</a>, 2007. |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/01/10/conversation-with-an-orthodontist/">Permalink</a> |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/01/10/conversation-with-an-orthodontist/#comments">9 comments</a> |
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		<title>Egos in Dentistry.</title>
		<link>http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/01/09/egos-in-dentistry/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=egos-in-dentistry</link>
		<comments>http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/01/09/egos-in-dentistry/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:54:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ameloblast</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Dentists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fractures]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.enfusion-group.org/~anthony/blog/?p=145</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And there sure are lots. These pictures were posted on here (this is the actual blog). The poster is a female dentist who seems like a fairly nice person when you skim her blog. She&#8217;s active with her church, so I assume that means that she&#8217;s probably morally superior to me (who isn&#8217;t?). She&#8217;s obviously [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>And there sure are lots.</p>
<p><a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_3S8xPW9q4_E/RaQd8WScQfI/AAAAAAAAAHk/kC34XeyUPeo/s1600-h/348527120_b6846b84f2_m.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_3S8xPW9q4_E/RaQd8WScQfI/AAAAAAAAAHk/kC34XeyUPeo/s400/348527120_b6846b84f2_m.jpg" alt="Before" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; cursor: hand; text-align: center" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018168807409861106" /></a><br />
<a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_3S8xPW9q4_E/RaQd8WScQgI/AAAAAAAAAHs/K3qRayU2y-U/s1600-h/348527121_45bc989b85_m.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_3S8xPW9q4_E/RaQd8WScQgI/AAAAAAAAAHs/K3qRayU2y-U/s400/348527121_45bc989b85_m.jpg" alt="After" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; cursor: hand; text-align: center" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018168807409861122" /></a>These pictures were posted on <a href="http://www.ismile.com.my/2007/01/07/tooth-coloured-filling-material/">here</a> (<a href="http://www.ismile.com.my">this</a> is the actual blog). The poster is a female dentist who seems like a fairly nice person when you skim her blog. She&#8217;s active with her church, so I assume that means that she&#8217;s probably morally superior to me (who isn&#8217;t?). She&#8217;s obviously proud of her new practice&#8211;and she should be. She&#8217;s done a good job setting it up.</p>
<p>All I did was post a comment asking her if the fracture lines visible on the marginal ridges of the molar connected into a sagittal fracture under the old amalgam. Many times teeth like this end up needing more than just a bonded filling. These types of cases are interesting and common enough to generate some constructive discussion.</p>
<p>Anyway, she didn&#8217;t bother to answer and erased my comment. Seems that the only comments she allows on her blog are the ones that praise her.</p>
<p>Oh well. I wonder if the meek really will inherit the Earth.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Turns out to be a rational explanation for the sequence of events. Karma has been restored. See comments.</p>
<hr />
<p><small>© Ameloblast for <a href="http://www.endodontics.ca">The Periapex</a>, 2007. |
<a href="http://www.endodontics.ca/2007/01/09/egos-in-dentistry/">Permalink</a> |
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		<title>Crack of the Week.</title>
		<link>http://www.endodontics.ca/2006/11/03/crack-of-the-week/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=crack-of-the-week</link>
		<comments>http://www.endodontics.ca/2006/11/03/crack-of-the-week/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:43:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ameloblast</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Dentists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fractures]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.enfusion-group.org/~anthony/blog/?p=107</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I finally got around to checking the parfocus on the microscope and resetting the white balance on the Nikon. Hopefully pictures will turn out nicer. Here&#8217;s a lower molar that had a large amalgam buildup with a sagittal crack through the amalgam. I suspected that this would translate into deeper radicular cracks but couldn&#8217;t find [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I finally got around to checking the parfocus on the microscope and resetting the white balance on the Nikon. Hopefully pictures will turn out nicer.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a lower molar that had a large amalgam buildup with a sagittal crack through the amalgam. I suspected that this would translate into deeper radicular cracks but couldn&#8217;t find any of these cracks until late into the retreatment.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s one crack running into the ML canal:</p>
<p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/7185/2258/1600/a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/7185/2258/400/a.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>And here&#8217;s one running into the D canal:</p>
<p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/7185/2258/1600/b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/7185/2258/400/b.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>I&#8217;ve sent the patient back to his dentist for extraction.</p>
<p>I see a significant number of teeth needing endodontic treatment because of intracanal infection or periodontal involvement caused by radicular cracks like this. The prognosis of any of these cases is poor because bonded restorations or obturants and subsequent crowns will not eliminate the periodontal long-term issues, or predictably hold the crack together.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I know that in too many offices these cracks are seen and conveniently ignored or seen and the patient is told, &#8220;we&#8217;ll finish the root canal, put a crown on, and hope for the best.&#8221;</p>
<p>The only hope, there, is that the patient will make it to the Visa machine before the tooth becomes re-infected&#8230;</p>
<p>On another note about the lack of ethics in dentistry: I saw a patient this week for a consult about a molar. He had just moved into the area that I work. After we discussed the tooth in question, he pointed at his two upper centrals and showed me how they were whiter than his adjacent teeth. They are crowns that were cemented within the last 6 months. He doesn&#8217;t like to smile because he feels that the colour discrepency is embarrasing. He wanted to know what could be done.</p>
<p>Apparently his previous &#8220;cosmetic&#8221; dentist (whom I know and who has published a few articles in Oral Health about cosmetic dentistry) got these crowns back from the lab for cementation. At the appointment, the patient indicated that he didn&#8217;t like the colour match. The dentist agreed, but said, that he would cement the crowns and they could deal with the colour problems after. Don&#8217;t ask me how this was supposed to be done. The patient&#8217;s Visa went through though.</p>
<p>Anyway the patient continued to complain at subsequent appointments. The proposed solution was to veneer the adjacent teeth back to the 5&#8242;s or 6&#8242;s. Needless to say, the patient hasn&#8217;t done anything. The adjacent teeth do not need any veneers and the problem should be addressed simply by remaking the crowns. I can totally understand why the patient is pissed.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m telling you, one day, I&#8217;ll pack my things and take the Boy and Girl, Hector, Sundance, and Polly, and go and work somewhere that people don&#8217;t fuck others around for money. Don&#8217;t know where in the world you&#8217;d find a place like that though.</p>
<p><em>You had something to hide<br />
Should have hidden it, shouldn&#8217;t you<br />
Now you&#8217;re not satisfied<br />
With what you&#8217;re being put through</em><em></em><br />
<em>It&#8217;s just time to pay the price<br />
For not listening to advice<br />
And deciding in your youth<br />
On the policy of truth</em><em></em><br />
<em>Things could be so different now<br />
It used to be so civilised<br />
You will always wonder how<br />
It could have been if you&#8217;d only lied</em></p>
<p><em>It&#8217;s too late to change events<br />
It&#8217;s time to face the consequence<br />
For delivering the proof<br />
In the policy of truth</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 85%"><em>&#8211; <strong>Policy of Truth</strong>, Depeche Mode</em></span><em>.</em></p>
<hr />
<p><small>© Ameloblast for <a href="http://www.endodontics.ca">The Periapex</a>, 2006. |
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