April 19
Cleveland, OH (Kreativ)

April 26
Sacramento, CA (Kreativ)

May, 2
Florida (Florida AGD)

May 7
Chicago, IL (Kreativ)

May 8
Poconos, PA (A. Leventhal & Sons)

May 9
Atlantic City, NJ (Benco Dental)

May 10
Atlanta, GA (Kreativ)

May 14
New York City, NY (Abiodent)

May 15
Lancaster, PA (Benco Dental)

May 17
San Francisco, CA (Kreativ)

May 19
Santa Rosa, CA (Redwood Empire Dental Society)

May 29
Syracuse, NY (Bona Dent)

May 30
Buffalo, NY (Bona Dent)

June 1
San Juan, Puerto Rico (AACD)

June 6
Charlotte, NC (Kreativ)

June 7
Chicago, IL (Discus Dental)

June 11
New York City, NY (Abiodent)

June 14
Oklahoma City, OK (Kreativ)

June 20
Seattle, WA (Kreativ)

July 11
New York City, NY (Kreativ)

July 12
Omaha, NE (Kreativ)

July 18
Dallas, TX (Kreativ)

July 24
Maui, HI (Den-Mat)

July 26
Washington, DC (Chesapeake Chapter AACD)

August 8
New Jersey (Kreativ)

August 15
Boston, MA (American Academy of Head, Neck & Facial Pain)

August 16
Minneapolis, MN (Kreativ)

August 20 & 21
Wilkes Barre, PA (Benco Dental)

August 22
Denver, CO (Kreativ)

August 23
San Diego, CA (San Diego AGD)

Without a doubt the biggest breakthrough in dentistry in the last ten years is the intraoral camera (pictured above). For years we looked into a dark hole (the mouth) with a scratched up mirror and a little hook and felt around for holes and cracks. And if we found something, maybe the patient felt it, and maybe we were sure what was going on, but a lot of times we just weren't sure. Now with an intraoral camera, which has a very bright light on the end of this little wand, we can go into the far corners of the mouth and show the patient (at the same time that we show ourselves) exactly what is going on in the mouth at 27 times larger than life. We have two monitors for the camera, one in the ceiling so the patient can see what's going on, the other one at the foot of the chair so the clinicians and whoever came with the patient can see what's going on. As far as diagnosis goes, the camera makes it a lot easier to detect early problems. So the camera is easily the most patient-friendly development in dentistry in the last ten years.

Sealants were invented around 1951, but nobody really believed they had any real application in dentistry until around the mid-1980's. Today, sealants are the first mainstay of preventive dentistry. Here's how they work: A lot of the cavities that occur in children and adults happen in between the teeth or on the tops of the teeth, in the grooves and fissures where a toothbrush can't reach. The grooves and fissures are the result of the formation of the tooth. As it develops, a tooth grows together from three or four different areas. When it has completely grown together, there are deep grooves left over, and a toothbrush has a very hard time cleaning those grooves effectively. A sealant is essentially a thin coating of plastic, called composite, which fills in the grooves and makes the top, biting surfaces of your teeth smooth, just like the insides and outsides of your teeth. You hardly ever see people with cavities on these smooth inside and outside surfaces of their teeth because a toothbrush is very effective at cleaning those surfaces. And since most people brush, there aren't a lot of cavities there. With a sealant painted on to the top of a tooth, that surface too becomes smooth, and the brush can clean it much more effectively. In effect, the composite painted onto the top of the tooth seals the grooves and fissures from plaque, preventing decay. Thus the name sealant.

I think the neatest new development is a technique called micro air abrasion. Traditionally, if a dentist thought there was decay in a tooth, he'd have to numb up the tooth with anesthetic (a needle), drill out the cracks and fissures, and clean out the decay or stain. Now, with micro air abrasion, we have a piece of equipment which uses aluminum oxide sands at very high velocities up to 600 feet per second to clean out the tooth and prepare it for a filling. Notice what step is missing there the anesthetic needle (pain). This technique often does not require anesthetic, so from the standpoint of the number one reason why patients don't like the dentist fear of pain this technique effectively eliminates that fear on many, many simple procedures. This is also great for putting on sealants, because before we paint on a sealant, we have to clean off the tooth and make sure there's no decay left there. We use micro air abrasion to blast off the tooth and it's clean as a whistle before we paint on the sealant.

Everybody in the 1990s wants to look better and feel better. Look at the number of cosmetic surgeries done every year. Look at tanning salons I live in Phoenix, which is about three miles from the sun, and there's a tanning salon on every corner. So from the standpoint of today's dental patient wanting to look better and feel better, white fillings are one of the most important developments in the history of dentistry. There's a lot of talk around about the safety of traditional "silver" fillings, which actually contain about 50 percent mercury. They're called amalgam fillings, and they've been around since the 1860s. They did a great job for over 100 years. But time and technology has allowed us to develop filling materials which are more aesthetic and stronger. I don't dispute the safety of mercury fillings the science isn't there to prove it yet. Honestly, if you eat ocean white fish, you'll get more mercury in one serving than from what allegedly leaks out of your fillings. However, I don't like mercury fillings for two reasons. First, they're ugly they look black in the mouth, and patients don't like to have black fillings. Second, in addition to mercury, amalgam contains copper, which expands and contracts, and conducts heat. So after 10 to 15 years of expansion and contraction in a tooth which doesn't expand and contract nearly as well as the metal, something has to give, and it's almost always the tooth. With white fillings though, we're able to place a beautiful, tooth colored restoration so lifelike, you can't even tell where the tooth ends and the filling begins. Then, through a process called bonding, we're able to actually cement that filling into the tooth, which strengthens the tooth back to it's original, natural strength. In fact, research has shown that under the right circumstances, a tooth with a bonded in white filling can be stronger than one created by mother nature.

Staying on the theme of aesthetics is at-home bleaching. With at-home tooth bleaching, which I'd rather call tooth whitening, we give the patient a set of trays that have been custom formed to their teeth. Every night for one to two weeks, depending on the desired effect, the patient puts a whitening gel, such as Nite White (Discus Dental), into the trays. The trays are worn on their teeth overnight, so that their teeth soak in this gel. Through whitening, a patient can significantly lighten the shade of their teeth by several orders. This has had remarkable cosmetic, aesthetic results on most of the patients who've had it done. Now, there are some factors which effectively limit the amount a patient can lighten the shade of their teeth. But in terms of what is patient- friendly, tooth whitening is without a doubt one of the easiest ways patients can look better and feel better.

The logical next development after bleaching is porcelain veneers - "movie star teeth." The best analogy for veneers is to compare them to a woman's manicure. She'll go down to the nail salon, and they'll glue these artificial, plastic nails to her natural nails, and file them, smooth them, and polish them. They look just great! We do the same thing to your teeth with veneers. A dentist will remove some existing tooth structure to make room for the porcelain. Without going into a lot of detail, an impression of your teeth is taken and sent to a lab, which creates your new teeth out of porcelain they look almost like little porcelain sleeves before they're put on your teeth. We make sure they fit, and then we glue them to your teeth. And unlike fingernails, which break in a few weeks, the veneers last a long time 10 or more years. The result is beautiful, white, perfectly shaped teeth and a big, bright smile.

Still staying with aesthetics and patients wanting to look better and feel better are metal-less crowns. For years, crowns were created by painting a porcelain coating over a piece of metal which served as the crown's base. The problem with this technique is that metal absorbs light. When a person would open their mouth, the light would pass through the porcelain coating, and be absorbed by the metal causing the tooth to appear darker or stained. With a metal-less crown, the entire crown is made of porcelain. It's white and translucent all the way through the crown, just like a natural tooth. So when light hits the crown, rather than being absorbed by a metal base, it's reflected out and around the tooth because the crown and the tooth are translucent. The result is a natural looking tooth which you can't even distinguish from your real teeth. There are no black lines near the gum line, and the aesthetic result is just gorgeous.

Lasers have been great for patients, simply because they have simplified and accelerated many treatments, increasing the oral health of tens of thousands of people. For everything from curing white fillings to very rapid, on-appointment tooth whitening, the application of lasers in dentistry have certainly made dentistry more patient-friendly.

There are a whole bunch of things which aren't necessarily new to dentistry, but their regular application by more and more dentists have made dentistry more fun for patients. Things like nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to help you relax and reduce stress during dental treatment. Nitrous has become more and more prevalent as a free service of most dental offices. In my office, we offer nitrous to every patient who thinks they need something to relax them. Most people don't really need it, but people feel like they need it.

Another interesting thing which has made dentistry more fun for patients is electronic anesthesia. Instead of using a needle to administer anesthetic before treatment, an electrode is placed on the area to be numbed, and a patient controlled device adjusts the level of electricity flowing to the area. The electricity, when increased slowly in small increments, effectively overloads the nerves in the area, making them unable to send or receive messages about pain. This means that dentistry can be performed on these patients without administering a shot. It usually works best in conjunction with something else, such as nitrous oxide.

The third thing that many dental offices are offering to make dentistry more patient-friendly in the area of pain control and relaxation is sedation, either oral or through an I.V. Every dentist can prescribe an oral pre-medication Valium, Halcyon, other sorts of sedatives. But sometimes, the patient feels like they need something else. Well, there are a number of dentists out there who are also anesthesiologists. After completing dental school, they complete a two year anesthesiology residency program at a training hospital. Then they are not only bona fide dentists, they're certified in anesthesia administration which means they have a complete understanding of what sorts of things are most effective for dental patients. The patient is put completely to sleep for one to three hours, and when they wake up, all of their dental work is done.

Finally, dental implants are a great option for patients who have lost teeth and want to have the most natural chewing possible. We drill a small hole in their jaw bone and place a titanium implant into the hole, which fuses to the natural bone. That heals for six months or so, and when it's healed, we put a natural looking tooth onto that implant. So it's great for single tooth replacement, and they look great.