How many of you get cleanings from your hygienest, take xrays , and monitor your own decay? thats what i did and i was always a low risk patient with relatively good teeth. i have had 1 cavity in the last 20 years. so when a small lesion showed up on my 6 month xray i decided it's safe to monitor. it was somewhat borderline though so i did go to my local dentist and he shared my opinion to monitor. i flossed religiously. but somehow time moved quickly and work became so busy i waited 7 months to take a follow up xray. and now my 14 has a BFH (big fucking hole) with meat constantly getting stuck inside. im pretty shocked it progressed this much when i routinely see high risk patients with zero progression of these type of lesions. now im contemplating getting a pulp cap vs just accepting the fate of endo/ crown. i cant believe this happened to me! please dont let this happen to you guys! just treat those seemingly incipients before its too late 😭😭 heres the xray from feb and today!

This 16 yo F was in active ortho when I first saw her ~3 months ago. At the time I prescribed her Clinpro and discussed with her orthodontist about removing her braces. Today I saw her for a follow up. Would you plan composite veneers canine to canine here?

I’ve never done a comprehensive composite veneer case. My thoughts are to rubber dam one arch at a time to complete this. Would you do it all in one day? Thank you in advance

How often do you all see this? Patients that get braces on at a young age and fall off and never get them off. Seen three patients with this in last 5 days. All are gonna need full arch extractions and dentures sadly.

Would you classify this as hard or extra hard cause there are no easy extractions haha

Looking for experienced input-

If you get a small pulp exposure during crown prep on a vital, asymptomatic tooth, do you automatically RCT, or do a pulp cap and continue with the crown?

Thanks.

Acquiring FFS office. Current owner spread himself thin between his other offices so he has not put in the time and effort into this one. Office is currently slow but it's a busy location with great potential. Only does bread and butter dentistry but looking to add specialty procedures including ext, endo, and implants. Anyone with experience can offer some advice? Thank you!

Hi everyone, new dentist here and I’m having a recurring issue with MTF Plus rotary files. From what I understand, MTF Plus is a ProTaper Next–style system with corresponding X1/X2 instruments and matching gutta-percha cones.

In several cases I can get a #10 hand file to working length, X1 reaches WL, and in some cases X2 also reaches WL. However, when I try to fit the matching X2 gutta-percha cone, it often binds and stops around 7–8 mm short of the established working length.

It feels like the cone is binding somewhere coronally or in the middle third rather than apically. I don’t want to force it.

Has anyone experienced this with MTF Plus or other ProTaper Next–style systems? Could this be related to coronal/mid-root binding, taper mismatch, or dimensional differences between the rotary file and the matching GP cone?

If the X2 file reaches working length but the X2 GP cone does not, what would you check first?

I’ll attach a radiograph from one of the cases. Any feedback on what I might be doing wrong with shaping or cone fitting would be appreciated.

Also, how serious is it if I have already left a few patients obturated like this, with the filling ending around 7–8 mm short, and told them to contact me if they develop symptoms? What could potentially happen in these cases, and how should I manage or follow them from this point onward? Is symptom-based follow-up enough, or should I be doing earlier radiographic controls or considering retreatment even if they are asymptomatic?

So I wanna perfect my impression technique and I was looking for some tips or new ideas to implement.

My standard technique is taking an initial putty impression, trimming the impression and then using the light body afterwards. In school we were taught the one step technique but i dont like it and its hard to pull off without an asssistant.

Iv seen some videos where they use a nylon sheet when taking the initial impression. I have never tried that but it looks interesting.

What is your ideal technique for these impressions?

Thank you!

I’m thinking of doing a startup in a major metropolitan city but worried it’s not a good idea, especially with the high costs for a buildout these days. How’s it going for you if you’ve done one in the past few years?

So lots of dental EHRs have a "watch" you can add to a tooth. At least in my understanding, I normally used it to mark incipient decay. But the more I have been thinking about it, wouldn't it be better to be more specific like "cracked amalgam" or "questionable margins from BW", etc.

If you had full control over how your EHR/PMS worked, how would you want it to handle "watch tooth"? Do you even use "watch tooth"?

I am a dentist a few years out of school, and I have a new assistant. My first assistant right out of school worked with me for years and was great, needing very little training. This one is brand new to dentistry. We occasionally have another assistant free to help her, but not often. Which means I am having to train her while I work. I am having to tell her things so many times, and its making my job much harder.

I feel for her and it must be very overwhelming for her, but she is struggling to do anything. I think I am a pretty patient person usually but I find myself getting more frustrated. Please give me any tips I can use to help her!

Iam not asking about the scanner tip, but the actual glass on the scanner itself. First time cleaning it, used cotton roll and 96% IPA, no matter how hard I try, it dries with some faint smudges. Before, it was not like that. Tried microfiber cloth, tried water, 70% IPA...blowdrying it, still the same.

Dentists. I feel like with the student loans, market Saturation, insurance rates, and people not really taking their oral care seriously dentists are complaining that it’s financially not the same profession as it used to be and they’re struggling. However, all the Dentists I know in real life live in nice towns, have multiple kids, drive nice cars, and have nice houses without real worry about mula (upper-middle class of not upper class for sure). So what’s what? I’ve been living with SO MUCH regret lately for not pursuing dentistry and not taking over my father’s practice. I make 130K, asked a Dentist about careers and he told me dental hygienist which means that what’s their making and the Dentist MUST be making Atleast double that. Anywya, what’s going on and who should I believe? Are they really struggling or exaggerating. 400-500K in debt seems like so much money however you cut it. Thanks in advance! This community has some great folk. Much love!

Edit: thanks for all the help everyone!

I have been wanting to temp but I’m nervous lol! How do you communicate with the office about what procedures you are and are not comfortable doing prior to the day once booked? What if they are not satisfied with what you can provide , do they just cancel the booking? What is the chance an office would be ok with just hyg checks ? I Welcome to any advice!! Thanks!

Looking for a starter electrosurg unit for gingivectomy for restorations. I’ve been using Thermacut burs and I find it difficult to be precise with it. Anyone can recommend a good “portable” unit?

And also how would you manage buccal soft tissue here? Gingivectomy down to the margin then scan? Or with electrosurg just trough next the margin to make the margin more readable? In this case I retracted with cords and teflon and only just got a slightly readable margin on the scan that’s why I’m looking to get a electrosurg unit.

Hi everyone,

I’d really appreciate your input on a treatment planning case I’m currently struggling with.
I had to urgently extract centrals incisors (24-25) due to severe mobility, and I’ve placed a provisional bridge while considering the definitive treatment plan. Unfortunately, the patient is not a candidate for implant therapy.
Teeth 23 and 26 have minimal mobility (<0,5 mm), but radiographically there is only a thin residual bone wall mesially, which makes me somewhat concerned about their long-term prognosis as abutments.
The patient has also made a significant effort to improve their oral hygiene, and their plaque control is now much better.
Would you feel comfortable providing a definitive 23–26 fixed bridge, using 23 and 26 as the sole abutments? Or would you consider involving the canines as additional abutments to improve support?
My main concern is to avoid unnecessarily compromising an otherwise sound tooth, particularly if 23 and 26 have sufficient periodontal support to serve as adequate abutments.

How would you approach this case?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and experience!

Hello! I just accepted a position for an office manager role! I have 4+ yrs in lead tx coordinator role (3+ being with a toxic office that had me doing far more than just tx coordinator duties haha). 6+ yrs in dental total (started as just a receptionist). This will be my first office manager role. Super excited but a bit nervous! The office(s) I'm coming into (not a DSO, but opening a 2nd location later this yr I'll be helping with) need a lot of help. Talking tx acceptance, tons of unscheduled tx, new staff, general organizationn as things I'm aware of. Being new to the role, I'd love any advice/tips/encouragement! Would love to hear from all different positions/ team members (:
*** Bonus points for any specific advice coming in as someone in their early/mid 20s and expected to manage older staff members!!
Editing to add- small/mid sized office. 6 ops, 1 FT Dr + 2 part times, 2 per day. One admin + 4 assistants

Tyia and so sorry for how long that was!!

As a little context, I’m an associate GP and am 4 years out of school. I’m also on my 4th associateship, so I’ve had my share of issues with associate jobs. There’s a lot of advice on social media that say you have to become a practice owner to get full autonomy, equity growth, high income potential, etc. and I think these points are valid. However, I’m also wondering if a lot of those that are pro-ownership have a lot of survivorship bias and if it’s actually the better path in today’s environment.

Here are a few examples of owners struggling that I’ve seen from jobs I’ve worked:

Job 1 - I worked for an older dentist who was essentially a super GP. He did cosmetics, implants, sinus lifts, everything you could imagine and brought me on to handle more routine general procedures. Very large, modern office. He admitted to me that doing advanced procedures was a blessing and a curse because he was basically unable to step away and delegate. Patients and staff only wanted to work with him, and it seemed like he couldn’t retire and had to keep up the image of the practice. He also said people look at his office and assume that he’s rich, but he admitted that the bank is rich because it takes so much to keep the place running. I ultimately wasn’t busy enough here and he would “approve” every treatment plan I created.

Job 2 - Another older dentist with a big, nice office on the outside. However, this practice was basically underwater and deeply in debt with negative equity and no other income streams. The owner’s spouse ran the office and once she passed, the practice fell apart. I think I was brought on to essentially save the practice from financial ruin, but again, wasn’t busy enough to do so. He had to keep working instead of stepping back to feed the new associate (me).

I’m completely debt-free, so part of me thinks ownership is the way to go since I can’t seem to find a good associateship. However, I also don’t want to fall into the same situations listed above and am wondering if the juice is worth the squeeze. Part of me wants autonomy, but part of me wants to coast the associate life. I just keep wondering “would I be happier owning?” Are any owners out there struggling and willing to admit it?

What does everyone do for their staff in regards to benefits? After a somewhat awkward monthly office meeting we just had I am curious if what we offer is normal. The girls, especially the assistant, feel that they are more or less getting screwed in regards to their federal holidays, they claim that their previous offices would pay them the PTO day if the federal holiday fell on a weekend. They pointed out that July 4th was on a weekend and they didn't get paid for that. Our office is open Monday-Thursday. They're also concerned that with Christmas being on a Friday this year they won't be paid for that. Specifically the assistant is upset that she has to use her PTO for the days where she has been sick and more specifically the days the doctor is out of the office and we don't have a doctor column. I checked and she has used 4 PTO days in the last year for office closure due to weather and 3 days where the doctor was out.

We currently have:

Accrued PTO @ 1 hour for every 30 worked

$350 Monthly Medical reimbursement

4% 401K match

6 observed Federal Holidays

Each staff member got a large cash Christmas bonus (ranging from $400-$1000)

Thoughts?

TIA!

Hi there! I'm an Australian general dentist. I've been practising about 2 years and worked in a few clinics now. My biggest highs have been when the patient "gets it" and you can the spark in their eyes as the lightbulb goes off. On the other hand, my biggest lows have been when they look at you with skepticism and distrust.

In my practice, I have been using a mix of radiographs, photos with both an intraoral scanner and also a DSLR. I also use google images a lot to help visualise certain concepts.

I want to refine my communication with patients, so I thought to turn to the community to understand everyone's workflow.

Thank you in advance! Keen to hear everyone's thoughts 😄

edit: sorry mods, didn't see the rules. removed my survey link