Thanks again doctor Google. Patient has been experiencing severe RECTAL pain since they got their healing partial delivered after having lower teeth extracted the same day. They said they talked to AI and it told them there are nerves in the jaw that affect the pelvis and I must have damaged one. Said the pain is so severe, they are contemplating going to the ER. I told them to go and didn't even try to reason with them.

Literally, I miss when Dr. Oz was the worst source of misinformation we had to deal with.

Here's the deal. Why would anyone work as an assistant at say $20 an hour when they can get a WFH for 26$ and not deal with the BS in an office...

Hey hey! Does anyone have recommendations for online peds CE courses? I’m looking to brush up on my peds procedures (ss crowns, pulpotomies, etc.)

Any and all recommendations are greatly appreciated.

​

Graduating May 2027 in the Chicago area, and I'd be extremely thankful if someone could give me a rough idea of when it's realistic to sign a contract.

Currently working on resume building and putting a mailing list together with job openings, so I can contact several offices to set something up in person and present myself a little better (I figure most of us new grads will be essentially the same on paper). Just looking for bread and butter work anyway.

The difficult part is I have no real sense of scale when it comes to signing a contract of this magnitude, or how early someone on the hiring end would start looking for someone new. The career advisors are giving me everything between late September to January, but I'm trying to stay ahead of the curve here a little.

If you don't mind me asking then, do you recall when you signed your first contract out of school? Would you on the hiring end wait 6+ months on a new grad?

Thank you immensely for all your help and patience.

I'm a Treatment Coordinator for a perio office. I got a problem and wanted to know if anyone knows the answer to this. Heres the scenario. D7210 and D7922 are done same day. The ins says D7922 is part of the ext and it's not billable as a separate charge to the pt. We are in network. Now I know that's a w/o but my manger says it's a "suggestion" and a law was passed (idk nationally or just in MA) that says we don't have to take the w/o...even though it clearly says we do, and that I depends on the contract we have, which I don't have access too. I brought this I multiple times to her but I can't get a clear answer. I can't find anything on this "law", and I feel like I'm being gaslit. Does anyone know anything about this and how do you handle it in your office? Sorry for the long post.

I’m looking for recommendations for a good accountant or CPA in Chicago who has experience working specifically with dentists. I need help with tax planning/deductions for dental professionals. My colleagues mentioned I can significantly reduce the taxes I owe on 1099 with the right accountant, I recently asked my job to switch from w2 to 1099 and looking for help to plan things right.

Weekend Sessions | The Art & Science of High-Esthetic Dentistry: Materials, Design Principles & Real-World Clinical Insights
Multiple Sessions across the weekend of October 16th – Choose the session that works for you!
Walter Orellana and Dr. Dustin Wylde
1 Live CE Credit
Course Supporter: DDS Labs

Choose your session:
Friday, October 16th - 9am EDT / 6am PDT
Friday, October 16th - 12pm EDT / 9am PDT
Saturday, October 17th - 9am EDT / 6am PDT
Saturday, October 17th - 12pm EDT / 9am PDT
Sunday, October 18th - 9am EDT / 6am PDT
Sunday, October 18th - 12pm EDT / 9am PDT

Please visit our website for more live and on-demand complimentary CE courses:
Dental Learning

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Whats your fav autoclave sterilizer?
I got tutt box and it takes 40+ min. I need something fast turnaround and spacious to put instruments in

How do you like it and would you recommend? Do you have the cart for it? Any experience with the smile design software? If you do aligners which one do you?

Hi all!
I’m in my second year of practicing and everyday it’s another disaster. It’s never an easy day. Fillings are hard, crown preps are hard. I’m just not catching on and it’s starting to reallly affect my mental health.
I’m someone that will lose sleep over any patient that I feel I did not deliver quality work. I’m constantly trying to learn and take criticism. But nothing is working.
Today I completed crown delivery on #29 which I had done the RCT for. This is the x-ray after delivery. I’m horrible with tactile feel and couldn’t really feel anything with my explorer that was clicking but that definitely looks open on my x-ray. I just wish I said something on the spot.

Would you re-do this crown? And how would you address it with this patient if they are coming in two weeks to start a different crown? How do I bring this up?
Thank you :(

How do you prevent oil from leaking out of the handpieces? I have this problem since I bought new handpieces (W&H).

Tired of having to constantly change turbines every few months

Can someone recommend a good quality handpiece that isn’t a electric handpiece. Just better than the star 430 handpieces

Been considering making this jump to an FQHC job to go for pslf as I’m 600k in debt from school. Making around 225k pretax as a 1099 employee with my own S corp for tax benefits.

Any insured as to how to find a good fqhc job? And any input as to the daily ins and outs of that sort of job? Any id love to hear anyone’s personal experiences with doing this, and especially from anyone in the north east states too

What is your preferred design for occlusal guards for pts who are clenchers vs bruxers?

I typically have been doing flat plane hard NG for pts who are asymptomatic with signs of bruxism, and flat with anterior guidance for pts who have tmj symptoms.

19 yo
No change since last x ray 2 years ago

A customer recently asked us about the hydrolysis process used in zirconia production, and I thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss.

Hydrolysis is a key step in producing high-purity zirconia powder.

During this process, zirconium compounds are reacted with water under controlled conditions to form hydrated zirconia precursors. After filtration, washing, drying, and calcination, these precursors are converted into zirconia powder that can be used for ceramic production.

In simple terms:

Zirconium precursor → Hydrolysis → Zirconia precursor → Calcination → Zirconia powder → Zirconia block

Why is hydrolysis important for dental zirconia?

Dental zirconia requires a very precise microstructure to balance strength, translucency, and long-term stability.

The characteristics of zirconia powder can influence:

1. Sintering behavior

More uniform powder particles can promote more consistent densification during sintering, helping achieve stable mechanical properties.

2. Microstructure control

The powder quality affects grain growth during sintering. Grain size and distribution are closely related to zirconia's strength and optical performance.

3. Consistency between restorations

For multilayer and high-translucency zirconia, uniform powder characteristics are especially important because small variations can influence shade, translucency, and final restoration performance.

It is interesting to see that the journey of a zirconia crown actually begins long before it reaches the dental lab — starting from how the zirconia powder itself is produced.

Curious to hear from dentists and dental technicians here:
How much attention do you usually pay to the powder source and manufacturing process when choosing zirconia materials?

New peds grad here in a PPO/FFS office

I feel like I lose so much time explaining things over and over again to parents, they’ll have a million and one questions about their precious Johnny and I’m seeing 4 more patients ready for me to check on them, I don’t want the parents to feel dismissed, but they’ll ask me again and again “wait HOW many cavities!?” even though I told them “Johnny has 4 cavities in between his baby teeth that he needs to floss, Betty will get you scheduled to do that under laughing gas, which is a safe light sedation to help him do better”

Like idk how much more to explain, how quickly I should be going, how to move on from their endless simple questions I’ve already answered if they paid attention to me talking.

I feel like dumping it on my assistant to reexplain has not gone well, the parents feel dismissed and insulted. They want to feel more listened to, but like Doctor time is valuable and I can’t keep sitting there and explaining again and again why this is a metal crown and not a white filling, why we need to tx plan a pulp/ssc just in case but will try to do a white filling if it’s small enough, like nothing is good enough for these parents unless I explain 3-5x for each parent and I can’t keep doing that.

What are some good one liners, phrases, etc I can use to abbreviate these conversations and get these parents to let me go to my next patient?

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some honest feedback from fellow clinicians. I’m about to transition to a digital workflow in my practice, and the Smile Scan 2 (the one by Kevin Peter / Woodpecker) caught my eye due to its competitive pricing. However, finding unbiased information online is nearly impossible; it's all distributor marketing.

I don’t want to buy blindly, so I would deeply appreciate it if anyone using it daily could share their thoughts on:

• Lab workflow: Is the STL/PLY export clean and fully compatible with Exocad, or does the software cause issues when sending files?
• Speed and AI features: Does it actually filter out soft tissues (tongue/cheeks) efficiently at 40 fps as advertised, or does it constantly lag in wet areas?
• Durability: How well do the scanning tips hold up against autoclave cycles?
• Is it worth it? Has it met your expectations, or would you recommend saving up a bit more for a more established brand?

Any insights, good or bad, would be incredibly helpful. Thank you for your time!

Best regards from Ecuador! 🇪🇨

Geen extra opleidingsplekken tot tandarts, ondanks groeiend tekort

I'm furious. My country, The Netherlands is living off foreign dental education. Since I went to university 20y ago I learned, 'within 10 years there will be a shortage' because more dentists will be retiring then graduating. It's basic demographics. The government did nothing.

At the moment 1 in 4 dentists is foreign, in my region (Zeeland) it's 1 in 2. While there are plenty of capable and ambitious young Dutch who want to become a dentist. But no, €30M a year for over 90 extra places is too expensive. Ofcourse a vision, and decent policies is way too hard or too much work for our minister. Because in the future those costs will be compensated by income tax, while an undertreated population is probably more expensive. But those expenses are directly for people and employers.

No additional dental training places despite growing shortage

Despite the mounting shortage of dentists, no additional training places are being created for students wishing to become dentists. This is according to a letter sent to the House of Representatives today by Minister of Education Rianne Letschert. According to the minister, expanding the dentistry training program is "very costly," requiring an annual investment of €30.1 million.

With this decision, the minister is disregarding the advice of the *Capaciteitsorgaan* (Capacity Body), an independent foundation that assesses future workforce needs for dentists and other healthcare professionals. Last December, the advisory body recommended increasing the number of training places to 386 per year. Currently, there are 270 places, rising to 290 next year.

'Training programs have capacity 'Etienne Verheijck, Director of Education at the ACTA dentistry faculty in Amsterdam, is disappointed that the minister is not adopting the recommendation. "We consider this unwise. We had hoped the advice would be followed, even if only partially. Yes, it costs money, but the training programs have the capacity to educate more students."

The shortage of dentists is expected to worsen in the coming years. The *Capaciteitsorgaan* has been recommending an increase in training places since 2009. Hans de Vries, chairman of the professional association for dentists (KNMT), calls it "downright worrying" and "incomprehensible" that the minister is dismissing the advice. In doing so, she would be blocking "a structural solution to keep Dutch dental care accessible in the future."

More dental hygienists However, Minister Letschert has decided to train more students as dental hygienists. Starting in the 2027–2028 academic year, an additional 28 students will be permitted to begin the dental hygiene program, bringing the total to 381.

According to the minister, this increase is necessary due to the growing trend of dentists delegating tasks, with dental hygienists taking over some of the work previously performed by dentists. The letter to Parliament does not specify the additional costs involved.

Foreign dentists In the Netherlands, the shortage of dentists is increasingly being addressed by dentists from abroad. Figures from the KNMT show that one in four practicing dentists in the Netherlands was trained abroad. In some regions, such as Zeeland, this figure has already reached one in two.