Invisalign Informational Video
April 29, 2008
This is a great video that shows how the system works, and the benefits. Worth watching if you are considering straightening your teeth at Winning Smiles, without the metal braces!
We hope you find it useful
So, patient walks in with his front tooth missing
April 26, 2008
No really. I thought it was a joke at first.
Just the other day I had a gentleman turn up at my surgery for the first time with one of his front teeth missing. When I asked the obvious ‘what’s happened’ he said that his own dentist extracted the tooth but forgot/didn’t bother to replace it with a temporary tooth at the extraction appointment!
I have to say both myself and Victoria my assistant looked at each other and were too shocked to speak! (not for long -ed)
Now, I’ve had plenty of patients walk into my office with front teeth missing over the years but
- most frequently the tooth has been knocked out in an accident
- they walk out with a tooth in place where there was none before.
I find it utterly amazing that in the developed world in 2008 someone can walk into a dental office with a tooth (albeit a wobbly one) in place - and walk out with no tooth at all!!
Suffice to say, despite there being no time in hand to sort this problem out - we had a ‘working’ lunch - we had a new tooth built from scratch and glued into place in less than an hour.
Once the gum has healed where the tooth was extracted we will be putting an dental implant tooth in as a permanent solution.
Had the patient come to Winning Smiles, it may well have been possible to put the implant tooth in at the same time as the extraction. Unfortunately a few days late is too late, as the gum grows down into the socket making immediate implant placement impossible.
OK Rant over!
Never too old for Dental Implants, or the Internet!
April 21, 2008
I love this.
Earlier this year, when we considered refreshing the Winning Smiles website, we wondered just how many people in our local areas of Romford and Brentwood (or our wider audience in Essex, London and Herts) would be using the Internet to look for implant and orthodontic dentists?
But when I discovered my aunt had been researching a new camera on the internet (I thought email was new to her) I knew that this electronic communicating thingumy was taking off!
So, a month or so in and we’re still on progress with the new site - click to leave a comment if you would like?, but recently we also had a visit from an 80 year old patient for a Dental Implant.
Here’s how it worked out by the way (click to enlarge)
When I asked him about Yellow Pages, he said that he used it as a doorstop, and he used the Internet for everything! To be fair to yellow pages, we do get quite a number of visitors from their Yellow Pages online site.
But that’s progress for you (the site and the implant).
Winning Smiles support local artists
April 20, 2008
One thing about dentistry, it is one of the few jobs that merges a theoretical scientific background with an artistic eye
I enjoy the art world and get out to galleries and shows when time permits! Many of you will be familiar with our ‘pondering man’ sculpture: that handsome young man, stripped to the waist who welcomes allcomers through the front door!
We always wanted to help local Essex and London based artists and show their art at the surgery, and we have finally got off the ground with it!
Our first art on show is by a young man called George Winks, now living in London but originally from South Africa. You can get a flavour for his art linked here on his website but look out for his paintings next time you come to the practice.
All the art you see from George, and future artists, at Winning Smiles can be taken home, for a fee, whilst 100% of payments for paintings will be passed onto the artist!
Lower dentures are utterly useless
April 14, 2008
I well remember my first denture lecture as a keen young trainee: The denture-department head stood up in front of us at the top of Guy’s Tower and said:
“Before I begin, don’t you lot ever forget one thing: dentures are only ever better than nothing at all!“.
And this from the head of the Prosthetics dept. (the top specialist in false teeth - ed.)
Lower full dentures are bottom of the barrell.
With the tongue muscles getting in the way the poor old lower denture hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of staying put. Meanwhile the patient struggles to speak and eat while it jumps around in the mouth with a life of its own.
Patients can’t eat solid food, they can’t speak for embarrassment, and often the movement of the denture causes friction-sores on the gum. What utter misery.
What’s more, there is absolutely nothing the concerned practitioner can do about it. Try as he might, adjusting adjusting adjusting, remaking, relining and rebasing - it just won’t fix it.
Miserable patient, miserable dentist.
But aren’t the alternatives too expensive?
Not necessarily. Enter the well proven implant-retained-denture.
Essentially the patient’s own denture can be modified with special fixings which then attach to 2 or 4 implants inserted in the lower jaw. The real beauty of this method is that it keeps the cost right down. There is no expensive bridgework and only 2 or 4 implants are required to hold that denture right where it is needed.
The treatment costs a fraction of implant-bridge treatment where up to 6 implants may be required, (coupled to 10 or 12 porcelain bridge units bonded to a metal framework.)
The implant retained denture can be removed for cleaning, but when placed in the mouth it is fixed solidly. This method can also be used in the upper jaw but more implants are required - but it’s not as great a problem as these useless lower dentures.
I’m sure that patients should rather be worrying about where to go out to eat!
Smile transformation creates emotional journeys
April 14, 2008
The stress and worry during a complex dental case isn’t only felt by the patient - as all sorts of pressures, not least that of expectation, can fall directly on your friendly dentist’s shoulders.
But its worth it!
As a cosmetic and implant dentist, the greatest feeling in the world is when a mouth has been transformed and a person smiles for the first time with their new teeth.
The first reaction is revealed in the eyes - as bright as the north star, sometimes with tears, sometimes laughter and occasionally a stunned silence. But always there is a sincere joy at the lifting of that invisible veil of self-consciousness.
These are the jewels in my working life.
Nothing compares.
