Patient-Centric Approach to Occlusion and Communication in Dentistry

When we studied occlusion at Dental School, our textbooks forced the idea of having dots at the back and lines at the front. We are continually told about CR and how to manage patients into canine guidance, but does this all work in practice? Today we dive into the best way to approach occlusion cases with our patients, keeping in mind that there is no such thing as a silver bullet to treatment. Join Jaz and Dr Michael Melkers in this podcast to learn how it may just be time to throw away the textbooks and begin writing your own conclusions on occlusion… try saying that ten times quickly. https://youtu.be/3Sk1paKW8d0 Watch PDP182 in Youtube Dental Pearl  Using PTFE in the dental sulcus offers a better seal compared to cord, functioning like a dam to keep the area free of gingival fluid, ideal for Class 5 restorations. However, PTFE may stick to instruments, which can be mitigated by moistening the instrument with water or saliva before positioning the PTFE, significantly lowering the likelihood of sticking.  Check out Dr Melkers and Dr Lane Ochi LIVE IN LONDON on 27 and 28 July! Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Highlights of the Episode 00:00 Intro 02:05 The Protrusive Dental Pearl 02:52 Dr. Michael Melkers 02:53 Mentoring Journeys: AES and Beyond04:04 Foundational Influences: Splint + Occlusion Mastery 04:30 Fear of Failure: A Dentist’s Drive05:25 Early Beginnings: Lab Tech to Dental degree 06:00 Avoiding Full Mouth Rehab: A Dental Mission.07:20 Homage to a Mentor: The Positive Impact 07:25 Group Function Vs Canine Guidance08:00 Beyond textbooks: real-World Dental Challenges 09:00 Encouragement to Question: A lesson in Bravery 10:16 Chasing Perfection: A dental dilemma 12:00 Masters of Occlusion: Group Function Insights 14:31 Past as Prologue: Learning from destruction 15:10 Pain Points: Focusing on the At-Risk Patients 16:53 Smooth Transitions: The Ideal of Disclusion 18:30 Occlusal Schemes: Debunking the Malocclusion Myth20:20 CR Reconsidered: The Healthy Majority 22:44 Diagnostic Vision: Seeing Beyond Occlusion 25:15 Rebuilding with Purpose: Beyond Aesthetics 34:35 Appropriate vs Ideal: A New treatment Paradigm 47:00 Key to Dental Success  Access the CPD quiz through our app on https://www.protrusive.app, either on your browser or by downloading our mobile app. For the full educational experience, our Ultimate Education Plan gives you access to all our courses, webinars, and exclusive monthly content. If you liked this episode please feel free to check out episode PDP160 - Fremitus and Occlusal Overload – Dental Occlusion Geekiness Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: In this episode, I'm going to share with you the four ways that I document my daily dentistry. And I'll give you six great reasons in reverse order. So like my top six, if you like. So six, five, four, the countdown all the way to the number one reason. So if you listen to the end of the episode, I'll tell you the number one reason to document your dentistry. Jaz’s Introduction:And when you grind your teeth left and right, the canines, for example, are taking a load at that point. And when this is happening the patient's joints are in centric relation. So the condyles are as fully seated position is snug position, and there are no quote unquote interferences or slides. I don't worry if you don't know what those things mean just yet, but some of you may remember seeing this. Maybe you don't understand or internalize what this actually means, but you learn what the perfect occlusion was. But then you started to see patients and you realize very quickly that these naturally dentate patients, your normal patients with the normal teeth. Whether they were 30, 50, or 70, they had all sorts of restorations, or sometimes no restorations. But they had anterior open bites, cross bites, and none of it looked like the bite in the textbook.