Now that I have Quicksplint's in the office I am not sure how I practiced before them. A QuickSplint is a plastic shell designed by Dr. Brad Eli, that fits over the anterior teeth from canine to Read More
Vertical Dimension & Appliance Therapy
Many times I get asked if there is a connection between the vertical dimension of an occlusal appliance and it's effectiveness. The answer is "yes" and "no". There is scientific evidence that supports Read More
When is Appliance Therapy Complete
Last week teaching a hands on equilibration course one of the participants told a story about a new patient to his office who was in active appliance therapy and frustrated because the former dentist Read More
Adjusting An Appliance You Didn’t Make
Are you willing to make adjustments to an occlusal appliance that you did not make? Over the years I have met dentists who "never" adjust an appliance that was made by another dentist, and others who Read More
Anterior Bite Plane Appliances : Post-Op Instructions
In yesterday's blog post I talked about how we support our patients in remembering post operative instructions. I started with a story about a patient who recently melted his anterior bite plane Read More
Fabricating An Anatomic Appliance-Creating The Occlusion
[/caption]The last step in creating an anatomic appliance is to create the occlusal design prior to polishing the appliance for delivery. Anatomic appliances are designed to capture an actual Read More
Fabricating An Anatomic Appliance: The Intraoral Reline (Video)
To complete our series on occlusal appliances I wanted to include this video of doing an intraoral reline. Hard acrylic appliances need to be both passive, meaning they do not exert orthodontic Read More
Fabricating An Anatomic Appliance: Trimming The Shell
In this segment Dr, Mark Kleive demonstrates trimming the acrylic shell using a Scotchbrite wheel on a lathe. The lathe is an efficient and effective way to not only remove the gross excess of Read More
Fabricating An Anatomic Appliance: Shell Fabrication
The next step in our series of videos on fabrication of an anatomic appliance is fabricating the acrylic shell. In last week's segment Dr. Mark Kleive demonstrated mixing the acrylic to achieve a Read More
Fabricating an Anatomic Appliance-Mixing The Acrylic
In the second part to this video series, Dr, Mark Kleive demonstrates a technique for mixing acrylic to fabricate an anatomic appliance. I utilize this exact technique for both anatomic and flat plane Read More