CAMBRIDGE DENTAL PRACTICE. CAMBRIDGE DENTAL PRACTICE THE HYGIENIST ??? Dr Rosalind Peart Would you tell a painter not to clean the walls before they were painted, the surgeon not to clean your skin before making an incision, or the builder not to lay foundations before building your house? Ludicrous of coursel So why would you want a dentist to do costly restorative work (eg. filings, crown and bridge, ceramic veneers) without ensuring that the teeth, gums and supporting bone are clean and healthy in an effort to achieve the best result. also has to be a dry field when the filing is placed. If the gums are spongy and bleeding, again, it's impossible to achieve and the end resuit will be poor. Having a cap/crown done has similar parameters. If your dentist is using impression material the good quality ones are hydrophobic and none of them work well in a wet field. So again, if it's impossible to dry the edge of the tooth because the gums are weeping the impression won't be perfect and the laboratory cannot see the edge to make a crown that fits well. I use a digital scanner now which is an astounding piece of technology but it cannot scan and create a good image through liquid, the area must be dry. Simple. So the reason we ask our patients to visit the hygienist first is to try and do our jobs well as we can. As much as we would like to appease people's wishes there has to be some clinical responsibility to maintain a high standard. The notion that it's acceptable to do a poor job because"that's what the patient asked for" just doesn't I'm not being grumpy here, I'm hoping to reach even just one person to help them understand why having a scale and polish before restoring teeth is so important. The materials we use to do fillings depend on a bonded technique to stay in place and not have "leaking" margins. In order for that bond to actually exist and be as strong as possible the tooth surface has to be immaculately clean. That means no stain, no plaque, no tartar and no biofilm. hold water. Kind Regards, Ros. Impossible to achieve unless the tooth has been professionally cleaned. There 9A Anzac Street I (Opposite New World) I Tel: 07 8275079 I www.cambridgedental.co.nz CAMBRIDGE DENTAL PRACTICE. CAMBRIDGE DENTAL PRACTICE THE HYGIENIST ??? Dr Rosalind Peart Would you tell a painter not to clean the walls before they were painted, the surgeon not to clean your skin before making an incision, or the builder not to lay foundations before building your house? Ludicrous of coursel So why would you want a dentist to do costly restorative work (eg. filings, crown and bridge, ceramic veneers) without ensuring that the teeth, gums and supporting bone are clean and healthy in an effort to achieve the best result. also has to be a dry field when the filing is placed. If the gums are spongy and bleeding, again, it's impossible to achieve and the end resuit will be poor. Having a cap/crown done has similar parameters. If your dentist is using impression material the good quality ones are hydrophobic and none of them work well in a wet field. So again, if it's impossible to dry the edge of the tooth because the gums are weeping the impression won't be perfect and the laboratory cannot see the edge to make a crown that fits well. I use a digital scanner now which is an astounding piece of technology but it cannot scan and create a good image through liquid, the area must be dry. Simple. So the reason we ask our patients to visit the hygienist first is to try and do our jobs well as we can. As much as we would like to appease people's wishes there has to be some clinical responsibility to maintain a high standard. The notion that it's acceptable to do a poor job because"that's what the patient asked for" just doesn't I'm not being grumpy here, I'm hoping to reach even just one person to help them understand why having a scale and polish before restoring teeth is so important. The materials we use to do fillings depend on a bonded technique to stay in place and not have "leaking" margins. In order for that bond to actually exist and be as strong as possible the tooth surface has to be immaculately clean. That means no stain, no plaque, no tartar and no biofilm. hold water. Kind Regards, Ros. Impossible to achieve unless the tooth has been professionally cleaned. There 9A Anzac Street I (Opposite New World) I Tel: 07 8275079 I www.cambridgedental.co.nz