Are You Fed Of Sleeping In The Spare Room?

“The Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth”

By Chris “Dr Smile Maker” Branfield

Are You Fed Of Sleeping In The Spare Room?

Hello again. I hope that you are well. It’s all go as usual. I was In Bury yesterday on a practice management/customer service course. It’s not only the clinical stuff that I have to keep up with and constantly look for better. This Friday/Saturday I’m at Cambridge University on a course looking at a way to speed up healing. It looks very interesting.

What Are You On About…The Spare Room

Well, there is actually a National Stop Snoring Week. It’s 23rd-29th April. Snoring is really quite common. It can be mild or severe. In very severe cases it becomes sleep apnoea when you actually stop breathing for several seconds at a time before a big gasp and this happens several times an hour. This can put a big strain on your heart.

The Big Yawn

One of the big drawbacks of snoring is lack of sleep. This can be for the snorer, but not always. Sometimes the snorer is blissfully unaware and sleeps well. The vibration or noise can interrupt sleep, sometimes you are not aware of it and it is more of an arousal from sleep rather than waking up but it still interrupts the normal cycle of sleep stages and leaves you really tired still in the morning. Obviously if the snoring is loud enough then it interrupts the sleep of a sleep partner and this is when the bed in the spare room comes in!

What Causes It

The cause is airway collapse and vibration. The main cause is the vibration of the tongue collapsed back against the soft palate.

Can You Treat It?

Well, yes you can. The aim is to stop the collapse. One way is to posture the lower jaw forwards which in turn brings the tongue forwards and opens up the airway using a mandibular advancement device. The one we use now is the Sleepwell device as there has been loads of research and great results out of Barts and the London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry led by Professor Ama Johal. I did some training with him.

Another way is Non-surgical laser therapy. My Colleague Ilay and myself are trained in this using the Nightlase™ protocol with Nd:YAG and Er:YAG laser. The great thing with this is no numbing, no down time, no surgery and it starts to work from the first session and the airway is improved 24hrs a day and not just when a device is worn. It’s all clever stuff. I’ll expand on it next time.

It’s That Time Of Year Again

It’s coming to the end of the football season. Will Hull City stay up? It’s been a funny season. I really hope that they do. Come on lads, keep it together and push until the end.

Until next time. Take care and be good. 

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 25 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 humanitarian work go here now www.castleparkdental.co.uk

From Soup To Solids ……In A Day

“The Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth”

By Chris “Dr Smile Maker” Branfield

From Soup To Solids ……In A Day

Hello again. I hope that you are well.  Another busy month as usual.  I was on a course last night in Wakefield in fact.  It was the Association Of Implantology UK Yorkshire Study group.  It was good but getting home just before 11pm was a long day.  The motorway was closed!

Ready For A Feast

So what is this soup to solids about then? Well, I was inspired by the study group last night.  I see quite a lot of people who have failing teeth and a lot of missing teeth that really means they struggle to eat what they really want to and can miss out on that enjoyment or are limited when they go out in company or socially.

This can be because of the limitations of dentures that move or make the mouth sore or because dentures cannot be tolerated and there just aren’t enough teeth left.  If quite a few cases it is possible to place dental implants in the morning and make a bridge to fit within 24 hours so that a proper meal can be had straight away.  I would give another 24 hours before popping the champagne but it is a good reason to celebrate as it’s life changing.  Like anything else it all has to planned right and certain criteria met to be successful, it’s all in the planning.  Not one size fits all. 

With our modern, fancy 3D scanner we have loads of information to do the proper planning with no surprises.  It’s really revolutionised dental implants.  I was just designing some implant guides this morning on a case that I had virtually placed implants on the computer.  This is common place now and increases accuracy and safety especially in more tricky cases.

What a Difference A Day Makes

So, “same day teeth” is another tool in the box.  We can use for single teeth sometimes or even a full dental arch.  Sometimes we can even remove many failing teeth and place implants there and then and have the bridge with 12 teeth on it within 24 hours.  With single teeth, within a couple of hours start to finish, sometimes.  

I’m a big believer in “tools in your box”.  In my game it’s different techniques.  Everyone we meet is different with different needs and situations so we need to be able to have bespoke, individualised solutions.  When I have spoken to young dentists I have told them to be a sponge.  To go looking for knowledge and soak it up.

Another reference I make is Bruce Lee.  At this point I need to work hard not to lose them as I get incredulous looks.  Well, Bruce had a martial arts style, or more a philosophy, called Jeet Kune Do (Way Of The Intercepting Fist).  The premise is to learn from all styles and not be rigidly stuck to one style.  Some techniques within one style work better than others for different individuals.  Also every opponent is different so if you do the same thing every time you’ll come a cropper at some point.


So, be an anorak, be passionate about what you do, learn from the best. Confidence comes from competence and competence comes from KNOWLEDGE.  “If you’re not GROWING anywhere you’re not GOING anywhere.”

Until next time.   Take care and be good. 

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 25 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 humanitarian work go here now www.castleparkdental.co.uk

I’ve Seen The Light….. Then I Didn’t

“The Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth”

“By Chris “Dr Smile Maker” Branfield

“I’ve Seen The Light….. Then I Didn’t

Hello again. I hope that you are well. Another fast and furious start to the year. First weekend in January and I was another 2 day advanced tooth straightening update course in South Wales. It was good with some great people. I’m sure it’s getting more expensive to enter Wales on the bridge though.

I’ve Seen The Light

I definitely saw the light a few years ago when I discovered and trained in the use of dental lasers. We incorporated their use as an every day thing into the practice to improve our patient experience as well as improve healing and precision. It is cutting edge stuff and we are proud to be doing it. Just one aspect of laser dentistry is in treating gum disease.

My friend, teacher and mentor, Ilay Maden, has joined our practice as an expert in lasers and gum treatment. He has a masters degree in dental lasers and a PhD in gums. He also lectures and teaches world wide and is an expert contributor to journals and textbooks. We are lucky to have him with us. I have been working with him for the last year or so and results have been outstanding.

So When Didn’t I See The Light

A friend of ours just turned 50 and always wanted to see the Northern lights, so my wife and I said we’d go with them. Tromso is a lovely place but, alas, no lights for us. Too cloudy. Apparently they could be seen 50 minutes drive away on our last night but two of our party got viral infections so it was just not meant to be this time. Hey Ho, maybe another go in the future eh?

Getting Some Bone Back The Laser Way

With gum disease bacteria initiate inflammation that causes bone loss around teeth. As this progresses teeth can become wobbly, abscess, need taking out or actually fall out themselves. Sometimes the gum shrinks back leaving aesthetic problems, especially at the front of the mouth. Traditional gum therapy aims to remove the inflammation to stop the bone loss. This does not regrow bone.

To do this surgery is necessary and can be successful. With Laser Therapy it is often possible to get bone regrowth without surgery. I’ve seen it myself this year with Ilay’s work. It’s AMAZING. Sometimes some surgery is required but the advantages of using laser as well include less pain and swelling, faster healing, less chance of gum recession, more predictable bone growth, reduced or no need for antibiotics. With non-surgical treatment even better with no downtime. Dentists are now already sending their patients to Ilay for treatment.

The arrows show how deep the bone loss was then the bone growing back after minimally invasive laser therapy WITHOUT surgery. WOW.

Before and after non-surgical laser therapy with loads of bone regrowth

I know I’m an anorak but I’m blown away with all this. Lasers help the body heal itself!!!!

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 25 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 humanitarian work go here now www.castleparkdental.co.uk

Doing Some Good….Now Let’s Celebrate

“The Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth”

By Chris “Dr Smile Maker” Branfield

Doing Some Good….Now Let’s Celebrate

Hello again. I hope that you are well. Happy New Year to you and sincere best wishes for 2018.  Hope had a great Christmas.

I thought I’d start the year on a real positive note.  Here goes.

Stop The Waffle

Now I am a self-confessed dentistry geek/anorak.  I do waffle on a bit and get excited about modern advancements and the science of dental stuff. So……….I thought I’d give you a rest.

Going Global

Some of you might know that I am a Trustee and founder member of a Charity called Dental Mavericks.  We get people, mainly children, who have no access to dental services, out of daily pain.  We have done this in Morocco since Sept/Oct 2010. In December 2016 we went to Thessaloniki in Greece to treat refugees.  This has been an on going project since.  Dental Mavericks, in particular Cally Gedge, who organises pretty much everything, are now helping organise emergency dental treatment for Syrian refugees in the Lebanon.  Now, I went to Greece but I don’t think my better half will give me a pass for the Lebanon.  Fair do’s.

Knitting With Real Purpose

I have some lovely patients who are great at knitting and have knitted loads of stuff for children in Morocco.  In Lebanon these baby clothes have gone down a storm.  Received with much gratitude.  The refugees live in camps in absolute squalor and have nothing.  This is such a fantastic thing to do for someone that you do not know and will never meet to help make their lives better.

Life is like the weather:  there is rain and grey cloud with intervals of sunshine.  This is pure sunshine.  When the sun shines we should endeavour to bask in it and not close the curtains and stay in.  So let’s enjoy this moment of sunshine and be grateful for what we have.  Also a big thank you my knitting Sunshine Makers!!  There is so much anger, pain, discourse and division going on.  This is such a great antidote.


Until next time.   Take care and be good. 

Chris

Bioglass…A Paradigm Shift And Smart Fillings

“The Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth”
By Chris “Dr Smile Maker” Branfield
Bioglass…A Paradigm Shift And Smart Fillings

Hello again. I hope that you are well. There’s been no let up this month. We are constantly looking for better ways do to do stuff and how technology can help.

We are very close to drastically reducing the number of conventional impressions we need to take because of advancements in technology. Exciting stuff.

Bioglass, What’s That?

A Bioglass is a compound that contains calcium, sodium, silica and phosphorous. It was originally developed by the military to help mend bones back in the late ‘60’s. In 1996 two dentists, almost by accident, found that it can be used to treat tooth sensitivity (now used in Sensodyne Repair and Protect) and this works very well.

The hard crystal in teeth and bones is hydroxyapatite. On contact with water or saliva the glass breaks down and forms hydroxy carbonated apatite (HCA). This is a similar crystal and gives a protective layer or skin on teeth to reduce sensitivity.

Let’s Talk About Fluoride

Oh, I can feel your excitement at that! Pease hang in and bear with me. We’ve known for ages that fluoride reduces tooth decay. As I have said the hard crystal in teeth is hydroxyapatite. When exposed to acid in the diet or that made by bacteria in the mouth from sugar (tooth decay) the apatite breaks down or demineralises.

Fluoride, when available, helps speed up remineralisation of the tooth and actually becomes incorporated in the apatite. It replaces the “hydoxy” bit to make a crystal that is more resistant to acid (fluorapatite). How cool is that? Worth the wait? I’m really quite geeky about this stuff, can you tell?

Now For The Really Clever Stuff

There is now a new Bioglass that has been combined with Fluoride in much lower levels than in conventional toothpaste. A team at Queen Mary University London under the direction of Professor Hill developed a toothpaste that could slowly release fluoride for up to 12 hours. This toothpaste called BioMinF, releases fluoride to fight decay and essential tooth building minerals of calcium and phosphate to rebuild the tooth surface.

This is the Fluorapatite. This is important to reduce decay, acid erosion and tooth sensitivity. Regular fluoride toothpaste and even high concentration fluoride toothpaste have soluble fluoride that is washed away in about 100 minutes. This wastes most of the fluoride. BioMinF is intelligent toothpaste. When the mouth becomes an acidic environment, BioMinF releases additional essential minerals. These minerals actually work to neutralise (stop) the acids in the mouth and protect and repair the tooth surface.

Smart Fillings

There is now work on smart filling materials and dental cements that work in a similar way to the toothpaste so they not only repair the teeth structurally but chemically on the surface as well. Let’s see how that goes, eh. Fingers crossed they cut the mustard.

All The Best To You


Have a fantastic Christmas and best wishes for a great New Year in 2018

Until next time. Take care and be good.




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 24 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 humanitarian work go here now www.castleparkdental.co.uk

On Top Of The World

“The Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth”

By Chris “Dr Smile Maker” Branfield

On Top Of The World

Hello again. I hope that you are well. Another busy month, phew! I’ve just got back from Morocco getting kids out of pain up in the Morocco . This was a collaboration with the Local Health Authority in Chef Chaouen province.

It Felt Like Being On Top Of The World

We got more remote than ever before needing 4x4’s to get us to some places. We all worked really hard and put our heart and souls into it. Another great team of people and our largest team yet. In fact our British team split into 2 teams for 4 out of the 5 days of working so we could get to as many people in need as we could. We saw almost 3000 children and every one received fluoride treatment, oral health advice, a toothbrush and toothpaste. In fact with our Moroccan colleagues about 6000 kids received this. We actively treated many hundreds children in pain and took thousands of abscessed teeth out. Bless ‘em.

Not 2 Halfpennies To Rub Together

People here are really poor and there has been a lot of resentment towards the government. Everybody we worked with was so friendly and appreciative though. The kids, teachers and parents were lovely.

And Breathe

Communication and rapid trust building with the kids is always key. We did have lots of help from interpreters when required but the main thing is keeping eye, verbal and even tactile contact and always asking if they are OK (“cava or labass”). The other thing that is massive to show empathy and understanding is breathing. This works wonders for relaxation. We all forget to just breathe and just “be” to relax. I do not know how to spell this but the word for “breathe,” phonetically is “sniffez”. We were all saying and doing it and really elaborating on it to add a bit of humour. “Humanisation”.

Not Lost In Translation

We discussed the role of interpreters and it works best just to do the minimum to allow an “in “ for the dental team so they can start and develop a trusting relationship, heart to heart, human-to-human. One young Moroccan interpreter got it when I explained. He said “emotional content”. Bob on!! It’s all about that and humanising every step of the process, stripped right back to basics. Formal language is then secondary.

A Massive Big Thank You

A heart felt thank you to the ladies who give me knitting to take out to the poor families. You know who you are! Also thank you to everyone who has donated money, toothbrushes and toothpaste. It’s great for us all to be involved in helping people and really trying to leave a legacy of impact on peoples lives for the good.

Certificate Time

As I mentioned this was a joint venture with the local authority and many bridges were built. We had to sit through a really long speech and ceremony of certificates. My name was spelt wrong. I should have done my usual ,“ think branflakes but field instead”.

Until next time. Take care and be good.

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 24 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 humanitarian work go here now www.castleparkdental.co.uk

A Bit Long In The Tooth?

“The Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth”

By Chris “Dr Smile Maker” Branfield

A Bit Long In The Tooth?

            

Hello again. I hope that you are well.   It’s all go again this month.  My daughter, Harriet, who had a holiday job at our place, goes off to Newcastle University to study speech and language therapy for four years.  So, her mum’s been busy getting her loads of stuff ready and enough food for the year I think.  I’ve given her a couple of cooking lessons.  You can’t live on pot noodle!  Oh we’ve got a new dog, Poppy.  She’s been rehomed with us after a stint in foster care.  She’s lovely and has settled in right away.

So. What’s This Long In The Tooth Thing?
Gum recession and getting a bit long in the tooth is a natural thing to a degree.  That’s where the saying comes from.  As you get older you get a bit long in the tooth.  However, there are a few things that can bring it prematurely at a younger age, some of it is genetic and some is not.  Gum recession can give rise to sensitive teeth as dentine of the tooth root is exposed.

The Bone Sets The Tone
The Americans have a saying. “ The soft tissue is the issue but the bone sets the tone”.  The soft tissue here relates to the gum.  If there is enough bone around a tooth or dental implant for that matter then there will gum as the gum always covers the bone.  If there is no bone then it can be unpredictable if the gum will stay or not.  Now some people are thin gum types and more likely to get recession whilst others have a thick gum type and less likely.  That’s just the genetic luck of the draw.

Gum recession can also be caused by over vigorous brushing, trauma from jewellery and inflammatory gum disease.  Sometimes having a high fibrous attachment from the lip or cheek onto the gum (fraenum) can contribute to recession.

Can You Fix It?
Well the good news is that often it can.  BUT, there are not that many dentists who can.  There are things that can be done to augment the gum to make it look better, more youthful and leave the teeth less sensitive.

My friend, mentor (in lasers) and colleague, Ilay has a PhD in gums and a masters degree in lasers and can do these treatments.  I’ve been working with him this year and some of the stuff is remarkable.  We are really lucky to have him as he is high demand and works part time on Harley Street.  He is going to be working more with us as well.

I mentioned Ilay was my mentor.  He taught me all I know about dental lasers.  He lectures all around the world on dental lasers especially with gum related issues.  In fact, whilst I was on a training course in Florida earlier this year the guy teaching the course said how he considered Ilay to be the number 1 opinion leader in the orls about treatment of gum disease around dental implants with lasers.

Welcome to the team Ilay.
   
Until next time.   Take care and be good. 

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 24 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 humanitarian work go here now www.castleparkdental.co.uk