HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA
I am a baby boomer. I am part of the generation that was born between 1946 and 1964. Baby boomers have the reputation for being quite independent. There are 77 million baby boomers in this country, and they have driven the marketplace since they were born. My practice has seen this over the years.
I began practicing in the early seventies when dental insurance became popular. I have seen insurance become a major force in the dental community, and I have witnessed its relative irrelevancy. I have seen the coming and goings of closed panels, department store clinics and DMOs. I have been part of the cosmetic revolution.
I feel that the key to success in today’s marketplace will be to pay attention to the “longevity” factor. The most important thing [click to continue…]
Ryan is like so many of our dental patients: he has some fear but he wants to get his work done when necessary. Let’s face it, not many people line up for treatment, hence all those root canal jokes. Ryan takes care of his teeth for many reasons, one of which is to stay away from me.
So when Ryan came in with a small chip on his upper front central incisor, he would have been fine to leave it alone…but not Grandma. He hated needles, he didn’t want me to touch his teeth and he was kind of vain so he needed a perfect shade match. When we were finished doing our magic (I promised him I would use only Weapons of Minimal Destruction), Ryan (and Grandma) loved us, here’s why:
1. No Needles
Although I only had to use the drill to do the least amount of shaping necessary, and to roughen up the surface. Ryan felt nothing (he was amazed…I wasn’t). I didn’t have to go anywhere near his gum tissue…I will explain that below.
2. No Mutilation
Who wants to get their teeth cut down for crowns and veneers? I understand the price of vanity, but Ryan would have lived with his chip. Don’t we all have patients like Ryan. And in the center of the mouth getting one tooth shade corrected can be one of the most difficult things in dentistry…dentists today are jumping at the chance to prepare teeth.
3. No Shade Discrepancies
Okay, this is really where the lab takes over. It’s pretty tough to make veneers that are this thin and esthetic. We can match the underlying shade of the tooth by using feldspathic porcelain. Note the contact lens effect in the center.
4. It’s Invisible
Both Ryan and Grandma were happy because it truly was invisible. It was a case of under promising and over delivering.
5. Now We Love Ryan Too
The best part of this is that Ryan and Grandma have developed a strong trust in our practice. It showed how competent we were to deliver on our promises. They realized that we had really listened to Ryan and his latent objections. Our intent was to do the very best for our patient under his circumstances and objectives (not ours). This is how we build our practice.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
There are many ways to do minimally invasive dentistry. I believe the success of this minimally invasive veneer case was due to the expert use of feldspathic porcelain by Niche Dental Studio, and the use of fine Dialite polishing wheels which helped to make all of the margins invisible.
