The wonder of dentistry

So, you might hear a lot from me, since my wife is out of town and I have a big test this week (which means I'll spend too much time procastinating the studying), so I'll hop on here and talk to you all.

I just left the Clinical Excellence Day downstairs in the school's clinic. Anyone that has research to present can, and anyone who wants to present a set of dental work they're proud of, they can. So there's lots of seniors showing off big complicated cases, many of the patients were there to show off their new mouths. Pretty amazing. There's one guy who does amazing work. He had two patients there and both were awe-inspiring (at least for me as a dental student). I got to pick his brain a bit. "How do you get to do such large cases? What's it take to get the patient to accept the plans?" I realize now that I should have known the answer to those and was showing my immaturity in asking them. He says simply, "I presented to the patients what I thought would be best for them and why. When they see how important it is and what it can do for them, they find the money to do it somehow. That's it." 

In watching him present to the faculty and judges, I realized, this guy seriously knows what he's talking about. All the little details they've mentioned, even if briefly, in our classes, he rattles off. Considerations of vertical dimensional overlap, centric occlusion, height of tooth contours for grinding and more. The patients didn't end up with the shiniest or most perfect looking smiles (although still very impressive), but when they smiled and showed off their teeth, you could tell that they were high quality and looked like they could chomp rocks for years to come and still keep the new stuff in their mouths (don't think you can eat rocks, I'm just exaggerating to get a point across). I asked him how much time he spent planning for his patients, he says, "Too much for a student." Lol. He's a hard worker and does high quality work, whatever it is. He even helped win a few of BYU's Men's Volleyball championship titles before dental school. 

A couple students also presented the findings of many studies they came across regarding the toxicity of composite resin fillings. Like any synthetic composites/plastics, it is made by polymerization (making small pieces into long chains) by a chemical process. In doing so, not all the little pieces get used, and "free-radical" electrons get distributed to the surrounding area. There's been a fair bit of very recent research (this year) showing the damage the unused pieces (bis-GMA monomers, which get turned into BPA's, or bis-phenol A) cause to oral tissues. The limitation to the studies is they're all done "in-vitro" or in labs on dishes and containers. There's been almost no research done on the effect in an actual person. They can't compare it to amalgam toxicity yet either, but to living cells in a lab setting, the bis-GMA monomers are deadly when used in large amounts (larger than what you'd get from having a filling done, but worth studying and researching still). 

Recommendations were to rinse with an alcohol mouth-rinse (like Listerine) or apply N-Acetyl Cysteine-- which has better antioxidant properties than vitamin C or A-- after having a filling placed. Still, this needs to be studied in real people before it holds tremendous weight, but they're off to a good start. It also should make anyone pause before going for white fillings just for looks or to avoid the mercury in the silver fillings.

It was an excellent event the school puts on every year. Now, they've set up some food for the participants, so I'ma gonna go sneak some, it smells good.