The Edinburgh Dentist

The Craigentinny Team are always keen to meet people and to give advice on all matters dental so we will be attending the first Edinburgh actorexpo tomorrow. Full details can be found using the link below.

 www.actorexpo.co.uk

If you do come along to what promises to be a fun and enjoyable event then do pay us a visit. We are providing free smile checks and have tasty nibbles too!…you can even enter our free competition to win a top prize: a Craigentinny smile makeover worth £1500.

Hope to see you there.

The Craigentinny Team

Dentistry is quite a physically demanding occupation. You are active throughout the day and often adopt awkward positions in which to work. As a consequence dentists and hygienists are prone to postural back problems.

I like to kid myself (even as I grow older) that I can still throw myself around a squash court effectively. In the past my back would give me warning signs that it was being aggravated by work and that the extreme twists and turns during a game on court were not helping. I used to ignore these warning signs and play on. Some years on and 3 “slipped discs” later I now pay heed to these warning signs. So today I have pulled out of the league I am playing in because my back has warned me to - despite my competitive nature egging me on to play because to withdraw will see me relegated from the league.

I was on call this weekend and treated 3 patients from other practices within a very difficult three hour period. It was this that pushed my back into giving me warning signs that all was not well. One of the people who attended had been having problems with his teeth off and on for almost 3 weeks. They steadily grew worse until he eventually had to present at our practice on a Sunday morning. We worked on three of his teeth and after 70 to 80 minutes were able to solve his severe toothache symptoms.

He, like me, had ignored the warning signs not just recently but over the last few years (he has had to have multiple fillings at his own practice) until things became so bad that he couldn’t continue. He now has to have further comprehensive and complex treatment to restore his dental health when he returns to his own practice.

The moral of this tale is that you should listen to your body in the first instance. When you are being given warnings that all is not well with your mouth..contact your dentist to get it checked. Learn to heed these signs and take advice to prevent any future problems…and follow it. Don’t be like me and the chap I described….get your body fixed when it tells you to!

I was surprised to hear dentistry make it on to Innovations Slot  Radio 2 on Friday night. I was even more surprised to hear a positive story about a subject very close to our hearts at Craigentinny. Tif Quereshi, a very well known figure in cosmetic dentistry in the UK was talking about the Inman Aligner a revolutionary new way to straighten adult front teeth in just 12 -16 weeks.

As a practice grounded in dental health and prevention we have been very reticent to jump on the bandwagon of  traditional smile makovers largely because these can mean that significant portions of otherwise healthy teeth are removed. We first heard about the Inman Aligner  18 months ago and immediately wanted to find out more.

John and I set off to get Inman Certified amlost as soon as we heard about the treatment  and as a result we were the first General Dental Practice to offer this service in Scotland. We  are now nearly a year down the line with treatments and ahve a huge body of patients who are delighted with their results. Our associate David  Kilroy was certified more recently to make sure that every dentist at Craigentinny is as up to date as possible. Here are just a few examples of what we have been up to

I feel very workshy this week, in truth I have not actually been skiving off but in fact spent 3 days on various courses updating my skills and knowledge.  It is always a wrench to take time away from my patients but keeping our skills up to date and at the fore front of best practice is one of the core values that have driven our practice for the last 20  years. In general we aim for at least 200 hours updating our skills  each per year.

Today was spent at the Royal College of physicians in Edinburgh, a truly grand environment. It made the day slightly surreal to see the several groups of soon to be happy couples being gently herded across the back of the room as they checked it out as a wedding venue. I dare say they found it even more surreal looking at pictures of implants and teeth that were being projected at the front  of the hall. Todays lecturer was Torsten Jemt of the Branemark Institute in Gothenburg.  He is a hugely knowledgeable figure who has been around Dental Implants since their beginning 35 years ago an as such gave us a great insight into many of the long term managment issues that can occur with dental implants. His clinic in Sweden is  in many ways the philosophical homeof the implant system that we use in our Dental Practice in Edinburgh s so it was great to hear his thoughts.

Nice too to catch up with many of the dentists that started  their implant training at the same time as myself. It is a real indicator of the growing popularity of this treatment that we are all busy and have a steady stream of patients coming to see us about having missing teeth replaced with dental implants.

So back home tongight with a huge stack of paper and notes to be transposed adn shared with the clinical team duing our training meeting next week. Find out more for yourself on our web site at www.craigentinny.co.uk or for the super glossy version have a look here.

Like most of the dentists in Lothian I participate in the rota to staff our local (Dental Emergency) Access Centre…known as the Chalmers Dental Centre. I was one of the dentists manning the Centre on Easter Sunday.  It was a nice sunny day outside and therefore good for rolling easter eggs, but not so good for being indoors!

The session I spent there taught me some useful lessons:

1. having an access centre for emergencies is a very valuable resource for our patients

2. staffing it with dentists from all different disciplines allows us all to look at the way we provide our own care and to identify areas where we can keep making improvements 

3. that unfortunately, valuable services such as those provided in the centre may be lost because of the thoughtlessness of their users (in this case some patients): 7 out of the 27 patients who booked themselves in that morning simply didn’t turn up!!

4. for many people, their dental health is an extremely low priority for them, which in turn means that maintaining their general health is an equally low priority….and in Scotland in particular, this point of view is still more widespread than it should be

and finally it really reinforced….

5. that for people who are anxious about dental care, the very worst scenario for them is to have a dental problem which they have “sat on” (due to their anxiety) but which flares up necessitating a visit to an unfamiliar dentist. It is the worst scenario as their anxiety is at fever pitch, they are in (extreme) pain and are faced with confronting their fears in completely unfamiliar surroundings and with a team of people they are unfamiliar with too. It is no wonder that in these circumstances their adrenaline levels are sky high.

I saw 2 people during the session who described themselves as falling into this category. Luckily, I just happened to be working with one of the nurses from our practice that morning and we were able to work as though we were back at home base: Craigentinny Dental Care. We managed to carry out much needed extractions for both patients and in a way that left them feeling calm….. and relieved to have finally had their dental work carried out.

Working with  anxious patients before an emergency arises is the very best way we can help anyone with dental anxiety:  to become familiar with a team they can trust and in surroundings within which they can feel calm and relaxed. Then we as dentists can help them with preventive dental care so that they need never experience the pain of a dental emergency in the first place.

 Today was  a big day for us, 6 months of planning finally came together on our first ever  Dedicated Family Dentistry Day. We want every patient visit to our Dental Practice in Edinburgh to be special, we have for a very long time though that childrens dentistry should be done differently. Today was our chance to test that theory!

The aim was simple,

• To see our child patients during school holiday time
• With a full range of appointment times on offer
• And in a way that  enables us to deliver the best quality of care possible
• And  allows us to carry out any needed remedial treatment immediately

On the face if it this was a tough list of thisg to achieve. The team have been instrumental in planning the day and attempting to pre empt any problems that may arise so it was  to everyones delight that the day passed off  without a hitch. Happy patients, happy team, result…….The whole team today finished on a real high and without exception had  enjoyed what was  a  great day of quality dental care in the company of our patients.

 So what made today special?

For many people the idea of a day spent in the company of lots and lots  of children at the dentist is a nightmare, in truth it is quite the reverse. Many of our team are parents themselves, between us we have 14 children of all ages and stages so a day in the presence of other families is actually good fun and well within our comfort zone. Our younger team members without kids of their own consistenly surprise me with just how child friendly they are.

We were able to offer more patients the opportunity to be seen at a time when Mum and Dad are more likely to be around instead of everyone trying to fit into  Friday afternoons on the local Schools have a half day. This meant everyone was more relaxed!

We kept time slots available throughout  the day so that any of our patients who were diagnosed with a problem such as tooth decay  were able to have it treated there and then. Most of the accompanying adults liked the idea of avoiding a second visit with their children and apprecaited the fact that their children were receiving the care that they needed almost immediately.   In fact only 1 patient today will have to come back to see us.  Testament in part to the fact that most of our child patients withthe help of mum and dad are dentally very healthy but also to the efficiency of the team that were working today at Craigentinny Dental Care

We finished today with a whole host of new ideas as to to we can progress this idea further. With doom and gloom everywhere in the press it is great to have a fun day at what is sometimes called work. I  am looking forwards to doing it all again on Thursday.

Back to work after a fantastic trip to Cologne over the week end. My mind is still reeling from the sheer magnitude of the International Dental Show. In total there were around 15 huge halls of exhibitors from all around the world with every type of dental toy and product imaginable.  it is not often that you see dental implants being placed in the middle of  a trade show!

Now jolly as though this sounds the trip had a serious purpose. I went  to look at the trends that are emerging in Dentistry and Dental technology and to see how this will fit in with our plans to keep the practice at the forefront of dentistry and patient care.  When it comes to technology it is a tru’ism  that we always under estimate where we will be in 10 years and overestimate where we will be in 5. This year in Cologne I was blown away by the progress on show and the sheer march of technology. So where do I see the future of dentistry now?

If you don’t like impressions, new scanners that will take digital virtual impressions of your mouth without the need for any putty or goo are now a reality and the “glitches” in these systems are minor ones. I do think this will become a mainstream technologyin dentistry sooner rather than later.

Dental Laboratories will change radically. Technicians  are the guys that back us up by making bespoke crowns, inlays bridges and dentures for our patients. For generations this has been a real “craft”  that ws carried out entirely by hand. With  the rise of digital impressions have come milling machines that can create a crown in a fraction of the time of traditional techniques. Thankfully a real human is still needed to provide the final aesthetic and artistic build up but I do wonder for how much longer? At Craigentinny we work with some of the countries finest technicians who are committed to investing in their business and already have some of this new technology in the form of the LAVA Crown System.  An all porcelain aesthetic crown that is as strong as an old fashioned metal one is now a reality

I enjoyed spending time at the show in the company of several other like minded dentists and laboratory owners  who were full of enthusiasm for dentistry and passionate about patient care.  Very many of our conversations centred round how we grapple with all of this new technology and make sure that it actually enhances the care that we provide and the quality of our work.

Oh yes and the local beer was quite pleasant too!

Yesterday, I was reminded that sometimes the best way to help our patients is to help them find another dentist. A strange thing for a dentist still taking on new patients to say you may think but let me elaborate….I met a very interesting lady who visited the practice for the first time to discuss concerns she has about the appearance of her smile. She has a number of upper crowns and a very large upper bridge which are all darker than her own surrounding teeth. She is keen to replace these and improve her smile. It would be a challenging “case” but would lead to a dramatic improvement in her smile and the stability of her mouth…circumstances and objectives that provide dentists with a great deal of professional satisfaction.

Now so far so straightforward you may think: at Craigentinny Dental Care we are able to help people improve their smile by: straightening their teeth, whitening their teeth, changing the shape of their teeth and replacing dental work that now looks past its best. However, I persuaded this lady, despite this, that she should visit a dentist in Spain instead. Why?…because she lives in Spain for most of the year and although she revisits Edinburgh each year, and could stay over for weeks at a time, the complexity and duration of her complex and extended treatment plan would make it very likely that she would need “unplanned” visits to the practice. Whilst this is easy to do if you are within driving distance or within one or two hours from the practice, it is not so easy if you live many hundreds of miles away.

I was able to give her some ideas of many of the options open to her and also recommended that she approach her dentist in Spain urgently to investigate part of her bridge that needs immediate attention. We both therefore felt the visit had been useful and a success. However, I sometimes wonder if the many dentists in the EU that advertise for Dental Tourists (you’ve probably seen the adverts: “ come to Country “X” to have your implants done”) think of what’s best for their patients in similar circumstances. What do you think?

Looking forwards to attending the International Dental Showcase in Cologne this coming week. It is a great opportunity to see just about every major dental manufacturer and supplier in one place at one time. Without doubt this will be a chance to see and play with the new toys that represent everything from the leading edge  to the bleeding edge of  dental technology. My inner geek cant wait to see where technology will be taking us in the next 3-5 years! I am indebted to the team at  DTS International who have realised that their clients need to be at this event and  have dealt with all of the logistics for this trip to make it easy for us to go. DTS provide the laboratory backup to much of our work at Craigentinny Dental Care. It has been superb to watch their business grow and succeed to ever greater heights over the last 10 years as a result of their dedication to providing  quality laboratory work.

We are right in the middle of some major practice development right now. This goes on all the time along side the dentistry but the arrival of our Practice Manager last September has allowed Myself and John to allocate  more time to improving our services and developing our team. After many discussions with my team about the barriers that keep nervous patients  away from dental practices we agreed that something was needed to help people bridge the gap between WANTING to see a dentist and actually going ahead and making contact.

 As a result our first ever e-course has just gone from concept to reality in 14 days.  It was launched on our web site today. It is a totally free resource and offers a daily e-mail for 7 consecutive days  where we share some of themany tips, tricks adn tools that we have used to help dentally phobic patients over the last 20 years.   If you know someone who is too scared to see  a dentist why not send them the link to the  Dental Fear E-course.

It was also a real boost to get such a positive reponse to this idea  from the site administrator at Dental Fear Central. As  a resource  for patients it is in my opinion  up there among the best.

Ideas from our recent  practice meeting it also lead us to a radical overhaul of the options that are available to nervous patients, and this too will go live on our web tomorrow.

Some of my most enjoyable days happen when we see the practice moving forwards, hopefully this is one.