Conference Topics

Rella P. Christensen, RDH, PhD
Newest on All-Ceramic Restorations & Caries Management
Carefully conducted large clinical trials including practicing dental clinicians and their patients are the hallmark of the TRAC Research Foundation team.  Efforts of this team are dedicated to answering critical, practical, clinical questions such as:  When should we cut and not cut a tooth?  If cutting is indicated, how far should we cut?  Can we develop therapeutic restorative materials that treat and prevent dental diseases?  Does CAD-CAM technology lend itself to this application?

This program will update clinicians on the latest findings in the newest category of restorative materials (CAD-CAM-produced all-ceramic restorations) and give new information on the do’s and don’ts for effective use of fluoride varnishes and sealants for patients of all ages.

Joseph J. Massad, DDS
Removable Prosthodontics
This presentation will review the latest methods in complete and implant overdentures, from assessment to delivery.  Several case studies will be discussed following a calibratable protocol utilized for all aspects of any removable restoration. 
Objectives:

• A method for evaluating soft-tissue displacement and character of edentulous jaws.
• A clinical technique for impressioning edentulous, partially edentulous, and dentate arches utilizing a disposable tray system and layering multiviscosity polyvinyl siloxane impression material.
• Jaw Registration:  Making jaw relation records for complete edentulous, partially edentulous, and fully dentate going to be fully edentulous can be very predictable.
• Denture Relining and Implant Attachment Pickup Procedures:  Are you having predictable results on each case?

Howard M. Rochestie, JD, LLM
Life Transitions
Now that dentists may live into their 90s, you may need to reexamine retirement issues and how to optimize your practice. With greater longevity, we have new questions we must ask and answer.  How do you prepare for not just retirement but every transition in your dental career?  How do you assure continuity for your patients, take care of your staff, and assure that you maximize the value of your practice?  Also, how do you create a plan so that you can retire and maintain your lifestyle for the rest of your life? What are the questions you need to be asking yourselves as you prepare for the future?

Value Optimized Practice
This lecture focuses on improving practice management, increasing leadership skills, and gaining team efficiency.  We assist doctors in finding gaps in their practice where they are losing revenue and provide them with the ability to correct them with very little effort.  Doctors will also learn how to improve their lifestyle dramatically and perform the dentistry they love with the proper transition planning.

Jeffrey S. Rouse, DDS
Interdisciplinary Rehabilitative Dentistry-Orthodontic Intrusion
The most powerful new tool in restorative dentistry is not an electric headpiece, laser, or CAD/CAM. It is orthodontic intrusion.  Patients with supraeruption of their dentition from poor occlusal relationships or significant wear are candidates. This lecture will provide practitioners a vision of how an orthodontist can turn a complex rehabilitation into simple, stressfree dentistry. 

Orthodontics as a Restorative Tool-A Prosthodontic Perspective
Would it not be easier to restore a patient with significant wear if you could place the teeth back in their original position and simply undo the damage?  If a tooth breaks at the free gingival margin, would it not be easier to pull the tooth free of the bone and create more restorable tooth structure?  Both of these are possible with prerestorative orthodontics. This presentation will explore both orthodontic intrusion and extrusion focusing on how these procedures can help simplify restorative dentistry. Dentists will learn which cases can be done in their office (even if you have no experience in orthodontics!) and how to correctly refer to others.

Thomas Schiff, DMD
Imaging of Oral Structures
Overview of the maxillofacial imaging—where is it coming from and where we are going?  Since Dr. William Roentgen discovered the usefulness of x-ray beams in 1895, we have traveled a long road with the speed of photon energy.  From imaging the teeth and their surroundings in two dimensions, we are today imaging the whole skull in three dimensions. This is the diagnostic breakthrough from the original x-ray machine to today’s cone-beam imaging in the third dimension.   How has maxillofacial imaging progressed? This lecture includes a review of the progress with image samples of normal and variations of maxillofacial imaging.

Imaging of Oral Structures Part II
The presentation details normal anatomical landmarks as they appear in two-dimensional and three-dimensional imaging.  How do you recognize the normal image and what the diseased state looks like in modern imaging?  Where we are today and where are we going?  The recipients of these advances are the dental professionals who can make a proper diagnosis as well as early detections of diseases of their patients.  When problems are caught early, this can help the patient to take necessary and less complicated steps toward having the problem fixed. 

Jon B. Suzuki, PhD, MBA
Periodontics
This morning’s lecture program will feature an overview of the most current trends in periodontology and oral implantology. Current biological and clinical information regarding the associations of periodontitis with various systemic diseases and conditions will serve as a “backdrop” for the successful completion of periodontal therapies. Issues related to medical and medication-influenced dental problems will be discussed in light of recently published literature. Emerging new standards of care such as ridge preservation techniques and basic oral implantology treatment planning will include case reports and future trends.

Preventive Dentistry
Medical and medication–influenced dental problems have recently focused on the removal of selected pain medications from the market. Other medications such as oral bisphosphonates used for the management of osteoporosis and other diseases and conditions appear to have a significant dental impact. Recommendations for the management of patients on oral bisphosphonates will be presented, as well as case reports. Detailed clinical and public health research regarding the impact of periodontitis on various systemic diseases and conditions will include cardiovascular diseases, cardiovascular accidents, gastric ulcers, pancreatic cancer, Alzheimer¿s disease, and dementia. Clinical recommendation will be presented with case reports and video presentations regarding ridge preservation techniques following teeth extraction.

John A. Svirsky, DDS, MEd
Introduction to New Cases with New Faces
Interesting cases will make the audience interact and diagnose as I “play the patient.” Some unusual “things” always pop up! A good time will be had by all.

Great Cases with New Faces
This new interactive course for 2008 will present a potpourri of interesting cases, as seen by or e-mailed to me over the past year. The audience will help to diagnose them as I “play the patient.” Some unusual “things” might pop up! A good time will be had by all.