Making a complete denture...It's fun

 Most Japanese dentists don't carry out teeth arranging in making a complete denture. They usually order that to dental technicians. My mentor always says arranging teeth sould be a dentist work, not technician's. It may look painstaking for some dentists. But, for me, it's really fun. Making a useful device(full denture) from nothing(no real teeth in the mouth) is exciting, imagining the patient's smile.
 In the process, I don't totally rely on my instincts (of course, experience can not be ignored). "Shilla system" which is a kind of occlusion analyser is really helpful in setting the 3D positions of teeth. This will guide you to a nice goal due to the standardization.

wax rim

artificial teeth



arranging upper teeth on Shilla 2

arranging lower teeth on Shilla 3

Today's seminar

 I went to Kanda Tokyo to attend a seminar. Dr. Abe is 77 this year, but he is nicely energetic in his lecture and demonstration. After he graduated from Nihon University 50 years ago, he went to USC in US and had great American mentors. He learned complete denture's theory and skills from them. After he returned home, he opened his own dental office in Sendai Japan. Then, he began complete denture seminars not only in Japan but also in Korea and Taiwan. He knows anatomy well and has great knowledge of dental materials. He arranged former skills adding his own ideas and has established new remarkable theory and techniques called Shilla system. He sometimes changed some parts of procedures for making full dentures, because dental materials have developed gradually. I have learned many theories, but I think Dr.Abe's thinking is the most persuasive and useful.

complete denture demonstration by Dr.Abe

upper jaw analyser (Shilla 1)

mounting upper jaw mold on Shilla 2

face bow transfer procedure

 After the seminar, I could see a festival by Kanda shrine. Unfortunately rainy though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanda_Shrine

Blade teeth for full denture

upper

lower

 When patients use their complete dentures, are natural shaped artificial teeth enough effective to chew? 80% of all denture wearers want more than what is being offered to them. Sadly, conventional acrylic teeth even if hardened have a tendency to become less efficient in a short amount of time. The patients must chew from side to side to get results.
 The idea of blade teeth is a solution to pursue more effective and enjoyable eating life. Food that posed a challenge for denture wearers in the past (meat, apples,lettuce,carrot) are easily cut up by the blade teeth denture.

Advantages of metal edged teeth compared with conventional ones are
1. easy to get comfortable jaw relationship
2. better chewing since cutting force is better
3. creates more stability in upper and lower dentures
4.less adjustments are required because of less sore spot

This weekend, I can learn the technique of complete denture through my mentor's demonstration, while I work as an instructor in the seminar.



http://www.shouohkai-dental.com/english.html