Let There Be Light

“The Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth”

By Chris “Dr Smile Maker” Branfield

Let There Be Light

Well, Elvis’ crown was in the building for a day.  We had some fun but more importantly did some free mouth cancer screening.  Mouth cancer screening is part of our 6 step smile audit at examination.  We use magnification and illumination followed by a fluorescence screening with a device called a Velscope Rx.

 

People came down for photos with the crown and health checks.

 

We were all dressed up with the crown.  My hands look massive in this picture and they’re only small really

 

Do My Hands Look Big In This Outfit?

 

How To reduce X-rays At The Dentist

 

A few weeks ago I was in London again.  I was actually a speaker at the Innovations In Dentistry Symposium held at Millbank Tower in Westminster.  I was really chuffed to be asked to speak about a cracking innovation that I am now using to detect decay without X-rays.

It’s called a DIAGNOcam.   It is absolutely fantastic for children, pregnant women and people who do not have loads of fillings. Having said that it is great for showing up cracks and monitoring early decay in teeth that do not need fillings it can get the decay process to stop with diet and lifestyle changes.  Xrays only show 2 dimensions so this can be used with xrays to give a third dimension to give a clear assessment.

 

Overcoming A Quandary

 

Xrays are really useful in dentistry.  With digital images doses now are reduced by about 90% to when I started in practice 20+ years ago.  But if we can decrease the dose further then that is great. 

 

One quandary I have is when to take xrays when somebody is low risk regarding tooth decay.  You don’t want take xrays just for the sake of it but you don’t want to miss anything and leave somebody at risk of losing a tooth when we may have been able to save it if we found the decay earlier.  I hope that makes sense.

 

Anyway, by using the DIAGNOcam we can do a screen and see if there is decay.  If everything is clear, brilliant.  If there is some early decay we may not need xrays, if the decay is deeper then we probably will.

 

It is a really good technology and is easy to show my patients.  It shines a special wavelength of light through a tooth and a sensor picks up the light transmission and puts a picture on the computer screen.  We actually see it as a live video and press a button for still pictures.  It is much easier to explain things and communicate.

Minimum Intervention/Minimum Fillings

This is my tooth. There is a small crack in the enamel towards the left with some slight shadowing. It doesn’t need a filling but just monitoring.  This is easy as we just take another picture and compare. I do need to stay off the sweeties and floss every day!

This one shows the premolar on the left being clear but there is a shadow on the molar tooth (right) where it touches the premolar.  The shadow does not go all the way through the enamel so this can be monitored and not filled at this stage. Advice is given on how to stop the decay from getting worse.

It’s holiday season now.  I’m off to Cornwall in my caravan with the family. My eldest, Edward, isn’t coming though.  He’s 18 next week and just got back from his first “mates” holiday.  Frightening!

Until next time. Take care and be good.

Chris

Chris Branfield is Principal Dentist at Castle Park Dental Care, Castle Villa, 28 Castle Road, Cottingham, telephone 01482 772550.  He has been in dental practice for 21 years and has a special interest in life changing, pain free dentistry with dental implants, rapid teeth straightening and cosmetic dentistry. And, not only that Chris is founder member and trustee of Dental Mavericks charity- ending the daily dental pain of Moroccan kids. For more patient success stories and Chris’s charity work go here now www.castleparkdental.co.uk