Does Air Particle Abrasion ACTUALLY Improve Clinical Outcomes? – PDP190

When restoring molars, should we ALWAYS try to recreate textbook anatomy? (spoiler: NO WAY!) What preventive measures can we use for toothwear? Tooth Morphology in the Real world! In this episode, Emma Hutchison and I explored the nuances of practical tooth morphology. Textbooks provide us with idealized versions of dental structures, but how do these perfect images translate into real-life practice? Can and should we aim to replicate these diagrams exactly in our dental work? https://youtu.be/OcdQRTV7jpY Watch PS005 on Youtube Highlights of this episode: 1:38 Introducing Emma Hutchison 01:53 First Denture Experience - What is an Overdenture? 03:13 The Importance of Complete Dentures in Aesthetic Dentistry 8:26 Understanding Tooth Morphology in Practice 11:25 Changing the Morphology of the Tooth 15:56 Difference Between Morphology of Premolars 20:31 Preserving Natural Tooth Morphology 27:26 Real-World Application of Tooth Anatomy Don't miss the special notes on tooth morphology available exclusively in the Protrusive Guidance app! This episode is not eligible for CPD/CE points, but never fear, there are hundreds of hours of CPD for Dentists waiting for you on the Protrusive App! For the full educational experience, our Ultimate Education Plan gives you access to all our courses, webinars, and exclusive monthly content. If you love this episode, be sure to recap PS004 - Learning Can Be Stressful!

Air Particle Abrasion! Images of Sandblasted teeth look cool but does it ACTUALLY improve clinical outcomes? What are the indications? When is it genuinely critical to use? More pragmatically, are there any decent alternatives eg. roughening with a bur? Air particle abrasion, a technique used to prepare tooth surfaces for bonding, has sparked considerable debate among professionals. This episode discussed its effectiveness, implications, and best practices with  Dr. Veronica Pereira de Lima.  https://youtu.be/oTGQBTyuY-k Watch PDP190 on Youtube Protrusive Dental Pearl:  Two advantages of slicing off a corner of the rubber dam are: Anterior Dam Stabilization: By flossing the cut piece through the front teeth, it acts as a makeshift wedge, securely fastening the dam in place without the need for traditional wedjet. Simplified Orientation: This technique aids in aligning the rubber dam properly, streamlining the entire setup process for more efficient dental work. Check out ‘Quick and Slick Rubber Dam’ online course (on-demand) only available via the Ultimate Education Plan on Protrusive Guidance Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Highlights of this episode: 00:44 Protrusive Dental Pearl 04:16  Dr. Verônica Pereira de Lima Introduction 07:07 Journey of Dentistry in Brazil 08:34 Academia vs Clinical Practice 09:20 Journey about PhD and Work Surrounding Air Particle Abrasion 11:12 Importance of Air Particle Abrasion to Clinical Dentistry 15:57 Health Concerns Regarding Air Abrasion Particles 18:10 Air Abrasion Contraindication 20:13 Size of the Microns -  Clinical Guidelines 22:25 Pragmatic Approaches in Clinical Practice 24:28 Cojet as an Air Abrasion Particle 27:37 Improper Use of Air Abrasion 30:07 Air Abrasion Guidelines Regarding Different Ceramics 31:40 Alternatives to Air Abrasion 33:29 Dr. Veronica’s Personal Guidelines - Air Abrasion Protocol and Unit 40:27 Learning with Dr. Veronica  Access the CPD quiz either on your browser or by downloading our mobile app. For the full educational experience, our Ultimate Education Plan gives you access to all our courses, webinars, and exclusive monthly content. If you love this episode, be sure to watch Immediate Dentine Sealing Tutorial Part 1 – PDP173 Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: Air particle abrasion for the restorative dentist. How important is it? Hello, Protruserati. I'm Jaz Gulati and welcome back to the Protrusive Dental Podcast. In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Veronica Pereira de Lima. Jaz's Introduction:She was the lead author and a systematic review in 2020 that looked into air particle abrasion and the significance for improving dentine bonding. Some of the key questions that we cover in this episode are how important actually is it? What micron of sand and which sand should we be using? Is there any benefit of CoJet? CoJet is like this sand with silica embedded into it. Does that really make a difference? And ultimately at the end of the podcast, we will answer the question. If you don't have it at the moment, are you really missing out? And the answer actually might surprise you. Dental PearlEvery PDP main episode, I give you a Protrusive Dental Pearl. Today's pearl, very fitting with air particle abrasion, because when do we use air particle abrasion? Well, we use it a lot when it comes to adhesive dentistry. And for adhesive dentistry, rubber dam isolation is often favourable. Now, I'm no rubber dam police, but I'm an avid user of rubber dam. And the tip I want to pass on to you today is, are you using things like Wedjet? You know, those stretchy silicon type strings that you use to anchor your rubber dam? And the terminal tooth for example, you're using a clamp on the molar and then all the way to an incisor, maybe you're using like a Wedjet or something to secure your rubber dam. Well,

Paying through the nose for your indemnity? You may get better protection with insurance AND it has saved Dentists £1000s - get a quote today from PDI / AllMedPro and get an additional £100 off (this is a promotional link that will save you money) Associate contracts are actually a HUGE deal that we do not give enough attention to... How long can your principal keep your retention for? Is it really true you cannot work within a certain radius? How principals and associates may be getting screwed over by the poor contract! Finding the right principal/associate is very exciting, so much so that we sometimes forget how important it is to read through the small print of our contract.  This can prove very costly in the future in our industry where mistakes do happen, so it is extremely important to be aware of what we are signing up for. https://youtu.be/lC_POxlmL_U Watch IC051 on Youtube Join us today with Neel Jaiswal and Sarah Buxton for a breakdown of how to negotiate the right contract for you, the power of being an Associate in this day and age, and the importance of Insurance. There’s a lot more in this episode so don’t miss out…’Court is in session!’ Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Highlights of this Episode:02:08 Sarah Buxton and Dr Neel Jaiswal 08:40 Associate Contracts11:15 Who Checks the Contract?13:50 Contract Bias towards Principals?18:50 Getting Contracts Checked21:28 Retention of Fees30:48 Annual Leave35:00 Exclusion Zones43:04 Vicarious Liability52:18 How to get in touch For the full educational experience, our Ultimate Education Plan gives you access to all our courses, webinars, and exclusive monthly content. This includes Vertipreps for Plonkers and clinical videos demonstrating Onlay Preps. If you liked this episode, you will also like GF019 - Indemnity vs Insurance Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: If you're an associate, when you joined the practice, did you read and did you understand your contract? And if you're a principal, do you actually understand the contract that you're giving to your associate? Jaz's Introduction:Look, something I make very clear in this episode is that I'm a man of trust. I'm not the biggest fan of forms and contracts. I don't really think any of us are, right? My biggest currency is trust. However, in this day and age, unfortunately Protruserati, trust is not enough. We need everything backed by writing and unfortunately a huge takeaway of this podcast will be that contracts are super super important to the letter. So it is my duty to make contracts tangible. In this episode joined by Sarah Buxton and Dr. Neel Jaiswal. Sarah is representing the legal side and Neil's representing the medical legal side. So together we're going to make dental contracts tangible for you. Everything from what is a fair retention fee to withhold from an associate after they stop working to who should be paying to get a contract checked. This one actually might surprise you actually. So who should be paying? Should your contracts be checked? The answer is yes, they should be, believe it or not. Who should be paying for it? What about the retention fee? What about vicarious liability? What if an associate messes up? And now the practice is responsible. How do you cover that in a contract? What about the clause that you can't work X number of miles away when you leave a practice? Is that actually enforceable? Is it actually worth the paper it's written on? And so with all these themes, this I promise you will be the most to the point, concise and actionable piece of education on dental contracts you'll ever listen to. Hello, Protruserati, I'm Jaz Gulati, and welcome back to an Interference Cast, which is an arm of Protrusive Dental Podcast, where we discuss non clinical but important topics. This particular episode is eligible for one hour of CPD.

Have you ever considered Dental Aid Work? Imagine giving up your morning starbucks and your air conditioned dental surgery to work in a developing country that has just 7 dentists. Fellow Protruserati, Dr James Hunter and his young family will be doing just this - they are preparing for a four-year mission to Liberia, Africa, to dedicate themselves to dental aid work. Follow along as we delve into their story of skill, passion, and humanitarianism. https://youtu.be/lzKVmuuUvBI Watch IC050 on Youtube Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Highlights of this Episode:00:00 Introduction2:52 From Theology to Dentistry5:35 Dr. James on Dentistry06:44 The Decision to Move to Liberia for Aid Work09:52 Understanding Liberia's History and Needs15:28 The Future Plans for Dental Aid in Liberia18:37 Motivations Behind the Mission20:04 The Challenge of Committing to Charity Work20:57 Financial Planning, Schooling and Adaptation for Children Abroad26:40 Sharing Experiences and Encouraging Aid Work28:13 Raising Awareness and Support for the Mission32:09 Closing Thoughts and Encouragement Be sure to visit https://www.thehuntersinliberia.co.uk/ for details on supporting charity work in Liberia. Additionally, explore other charity websites in your country for more ways to make a difference locally. This episode is not eligible for CPD/CE points, but never fear, there are hundreds of hours of CPD waiting for you on the Protrusive App! For the full educational experience, our Ultimate Education Plan gives you access to all our courses, webinars, and exclusive monthly content. This includes Vertipreps for Plonkers and clinical videos demonstrating Onlay Preps. If you enjoyed this episode, don't miss out on watching "The International Dental Student – From Ukraine to Egypt to Slovakia – IC047” Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: As dentists, we are in a privileged position. I know it's sometimes hard to fathom that and hard to come to terms with that because of all the doom and gloom that we sometimes like to focus on. Jaz's Introduction:But really, we are in a beautiful profession, and we can actually mold our profession how we want to. Now, there might come a time in your life, if you're that way inclined, to take your career towards dental aid. This could be at the start, the middle, or even towards the end of your career, which is quite popular, to donate yourself, donate your skills to charity. This could be in a refugee camp, this could be in a third world country, to provide a much needed dental service. So on today's episode, I've got Dr. James Hunter, who, with his family, so him, his two kids, his wife, are moving to Liberia, which is a small country in Africa, and he's going to be, hopefully, working there for about four years. That's his provisional plan, along with his family, providing dental aid, which I just think it's so so noble. So, what this episode wants to do is basically let you know about the different aid opportunities out there. And actually, just had this interview with James to find out what are his motivations. How do you get involved with this? But how did you even have that difficult conversation with your spouse, with your children, that you're going to move to this country in Africa and for the next four years of your life you're going to leave the rat race? You see, a lot of us would struggle to say, you know what, I'm going to give up the income, I'm going to give up the house, give up the practice, give up the cars and move to a third world country and work for free and just do a beautiful charitable thing, which is exactly what James and his family are doing. But James and his family are very, very rare individuals. They are gems. They are the gems of this planet. And I want his story to come out and it might inspire you. It might inspire you to maybe take two weeks out of the year to do some dental aid work...

Have we fully shifted towards lithium disilicate overlays and onlays? Are full crowns considered a sin in 2024? (Maybe just on Instagram then!) Spoiler: Crowns TOTALLY have a place, and so do large direct composite restorations! Dr Alan Burgin and I share our decision making trees for indirect restorations as part of ‘Crowns and Onlays Month’ on Protrusive Dental Podcast. Find out which clinical factors sway us more towards a Overlay vs a Vertiprep - and the rationale for each type of restoration. https://youtu.be/Gntb083yUOQ Watch PDP189 on Youtube Protrusive Dental Pearl: Use Vaseline on the gingivae when carrying out a ‘smile trial’ or bis-acryl mock-up - will result in an easier clean up! Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Highlights of this Episode:01:54 Protrusive Dental Pearl02:44 Introduction - Dr Alan Burgin18:20 Types of Indirect Restorations31:16 From Onlay to Crown44:40 Crowns - Traditional vs Verti-Preps54:00 Reflection57:48 Alan’s Prep Course For the full educational experience, our Ultimate Education Plan gives you access to all our courses, webinars, and exclusive monthly content. This includes Vertipreps for Plonkers and clinical videos demonstrating Onlay Preps. Join us on Protrusive Guidance, our own platform for dental professionals. No need for Facebook anymore! 😉 If you liked this episode, you will also like PDP089 - Vertiprep Revision Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: Overlays and onlays have become very popular. So is there still a place for full crowns? I still place full crowns because I use vertical crowns, i.e. vertipreps. Even then, if a tooth has enough enamel, my indirect restoration of choice will very likely be an overlay restoration. Something like lithium disilicate. [Jaz]The other modern consideration that we have is composite. We can actually go really far with composites and I know the bigger the composite the less predictable it can be but sometimes with modern techniques and looking after the occlusion you can get a long time out of a large composite and often due to budgetary reasons or otherwise the large composite is what we may be opting for in many scenarios. So where do we draw the line? What's the limit of a large posterior composite? These are all the real world questions we'll be discussing today with my guest Dr. Alan Burgin as part of crowns and onlays month in June 2024. So remember in February we did Adhesive Dentistry, then in March we did Documentation, April we did Mental Health, in May we did may the Force Be With You Orthodontics, and now we're doing Crowns and Onlays. And I hope you agree that this is big enough to deserve its own month. It's our daily decision making. It's our bread and butter daily restorative dentistry. Hello Protruserati, I'm Jaz Gulati and welcome back to your favorite dental podcast. Every PDP episode, I give you a Protrusive Dental Pearl, except this time I've actually just run out. There's no more pearls out there. There's no more tips. In all the episodes we've done in the last six years, we've covered every single tip in Dentistry. And so, there we are. There's no more tips, guys. Dental PearlI'm just kidding. Listen, the tip for this one, the Protrusive Dental Pearl, by the way, if you want access to every single protrusive dental pearl, we've created a new PDF, by the way, which all the previous pearls are there in one PDF. This is freely available in Protrusive Guidance, our community, and the home of the nicest and geekiest dentists in the world. The website for that is protrusive. app or download the iOS, Android app is called Protrusive Guidance. The pearl for today is when you're doing a mock up with a bisacryl. What's bisacryl? It's like, you know, ProTemp, LuxaTemp, Integrity, all these instant crown bridge temporary materials. When you're doing a mock up like a smile preview, perhaps before veneers or something.

Clinical Dentistry is a steep learning curve - it can be frustrating, frightening and quite frankly exhilarating. This episode (better late than never! My wife finished her MSc so now I’m back on track!) picks up the theme of Stress Awareness and I discuss with Emma Hutchinson, our Protrusive Student, how students can manage stress effectively, prioritize their studies, and identify their unique learning styles.  We also address imposter syndrome and the various difficulties encountered while learning something as complex as dentistry. https://youtu.be/EIXeUvlTams Highlights of this episode:00:00 Introduction03:25 Welcoming Emma Back04:16 Protrusive Students06:30 Dentistry Students vs Other Courses08:24 Hobbies and Activities Outside of Dental School12:50 Communication Style14:48 Student-Life Balance19:01 Past Papers during Exam Time21:00 Networking in Dentistry28:51 Burnout and Mental Health Perspective33:45 Next Month - Orthodontics This episode is not eligible for CPD/CE points, but never fear, there are hundreds of hours of CPD waiting for you on the Protrusive App! For the full educational experience, our Ultimate Education Plan gives you access to all our courses, webinars, and exclusive monthly content. Join us on Protrusive Guidance, our own platform for dental professionals. No need for Facebook anymore! 😉 If you love this episode, be sure to watch Adhesive Dentistry for Beginners – PS002

Implants can fail - we all know that…but what are the medico-legal implications when they fail at 6 months after restoring them… Is it all the restoring Dentists’ problem? ‘He who touched it last’? Or does the implant placing surgeon also need to be involved in the ‘post-mortem’? How can we handle the upset patient (and prevent this in the first place!) https://youtu.be/1CSE9J1w-Pw Watch GF022 on Youtube In the latest podcast episode, we introduced Dr. Joe Bhat and Neel Jeiswal, both prominent figures in Dentistry. Neel, representing PDI, has a rich background in clinical dentistry and medico-legal matters, while Dr Joe Bhat is a dual specialist in Oral Surgery and Prosthodontics. Joe established a pioneering multi-disciplinary clinic 20 years ago, which continues to thrive with numerous referrals. Both guests provided deep insights into implant failures, patient management, and the importance of effective communication and collaboration in dental practices. Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Check out Dr Joe Bhat’s place of practice - Moor Park Specialists Due a renewal for your indemnity/insurance? Get a quote and special discount from PDI If you liked this episode, you will also like 4 Ways to Boost Osseointegration of Your Implants – PDP155 – Protrusive Dental Podcast Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: Imagine you have a patient and you refer him to the implantologist, who proceeds to place an implant for the upper right molar. Some months later, you then restore that implant. But unfortunately, this one doesn't go to plan and six months later, you make a diagnosis of peri implantitis and the implant has officially failed. [Jaz]You potentially have an upset patient on your hands. This patient is potentially pointing some fingers. Now who should the finger go towards? Should the finger go towards the implant placing dentist? or the implant restoring dentist. It's a bit of a medical legal minefield. So I'm joined today by Dr. Joe Bhat, who's both an oral surgeon and a prosthodontist, so he's in a great position to be our expert today, as well as Dr. Neel Jeiswal, who I rely on so much when anything, when it comes to medical legal, and indemnity This episode is CPD eligible on the Protrusive app called Protrusive Guidance. I think you'll learn a lot about communication, consent, and a proper medical legal management when things go wrong, how they work with each other. So we can benefit and really help our patients because ultimately everything we do is It's for the benefit of our patients. Dr. Joe Bhat, welcome to the Protrusive Dental Podcast for the first time. And Neel Jeiswal, welcome again, my friend. Neel, you are the representative of PDI and a clinical dentist that we love having on because your medical legal perspectives are absolutely fantastic, and also your years of clinical experience. But Joe, I don't think we've met before properly, so it's great to be introduced by Neel. Joe, tell us about yourself as a practicing dentist. What are your interests? [Joe]Thank you so much for the invite. I know it came via Neel, but I've heard a lot about you, Jaz. So good to be e-connected finally. I am a dentist. I'm a prosthodontist and an oral surgeon. So I started my life as an oral surgeon, did six, nearly seven years of Maxfax, did my, the old time fellowship, the FDS- RCS. And then I went back to dental school and did my specialist prosthodontic training. So I did my MClindent and MRD. We were the first batch. I was the first student, my surname beginning with B meant that I was my first student ever to get a monospecialty training pathway in prosthodontics. So I became a dual specialist in 2001. So that's 23 years ago. And we set up a specialist practice. The idea of the specialist practice at that stage was at that time, when I set up the practice more than two and a bit decades ago,

More brilliant questions from dental students as Jaz is joined by Dhruti Mysore from Plymouth University. https://youtu.be/APKMX2qdDQg Watch AJ008 on Youtube We covered themes of student-life balance and professional development. Jaz shared the powerful technique of ‘Just-in-Time’ learning to gain structure and purpose to post-graduate development. Jaz gave his top tips for preventing burnout and the power of a supportive network.  And of course, we discussed Occlusion and Facebows! Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! For the full educational experience, our Ultimate Education Plan gives you access to all our courses, webinars, and exclusive monthly content. Join us on Protrusive Guidance, our own platform for dental professionals. No need for Facebook anymore! 😉 If you liked this episode, you will also like Occlusion Questions from Students – AJ005 Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Ask Jaz, part of the Protrusive Dental Podcast. My name is Jaz Gulati and I'll be your host and today we have a dental student, a fourth year dental student, Dhruti Mysore, who's got some questions for me, both clinical and non clinical. For example, what things did I learn during dental school that I still use today? [Jaz]And you know what? The answer just might shock you. The other thing that Dhruti asked is what happens when you qualify? Like when you qualify, what are the kind of courses and education that we should be seeking? We also discussed a little bit of the clinical stuff like occlusion, obviously, but there's once again a lot more in there about the work life balance and the journey of the career that we're in. So I hope you enjoy it and I'll catch you in the outro. Dhruti Mysore, welcome to the student's edition of the Protrusive Dental Podcast. How are you? [Dhruti]I'm good. It's nice that you could have me on. I've been such a big fan of you, I've been listening to you for the last two years. And yeah, we just finished final exams for fourth year now. So we have about a month of clinics left and then we're done for the year. [Jaz]But so if you finish your final exam, so this is at Plymouth by the way, right? So that means fifth year, is it a chilled year at your uni? Is that relatively, you can't say that now, you're shaking your head. Okay. [Dhruti]No, no. [Jaz]What have you got in store fifth year then? [Dhruti]So fifth year we have OSCEs and we have like three sets of MCQ exams. And we have sort of the SJT for our foundation year as well. [Jaz]And that's around the corner, right? That's probably September, October, November time, I think. [Dhruti]Yeah. Yeah. It's quite soon. And then we have other little modules, critical appraisal essays. It's sort of all powered on in fifth year. So, yeah. [Jaz]But do you feel a sense of relief getting fourth year out of the way? Cause it sounds like it's quite exam heavy, right? [Dhruti]Yeah. So actually our fourth year was a little bit different. So we, do you know Truro in Cornwall? [Jaz]Yeah. Yes, of course, beautiful part of the world. [Dhruti]Yeah, so we are actually, my whole year lives down here for this year. And it's sort of like we do a placement year there. So we're all down in Cornwall and then next year we're back to Plymouth. So it is nice sort of going back to like, you know, my uni city. But we're all going to miss Cornwall. And it's been really nice because clinic is only like a five minute walk because we live in the hospital accommodation. So it's really nice to be able to go home at lunchtime and then if there's no patient, sometimes we just go home and that's like, I think that's what's going to be missed as well about next year. So this year, the clinics have been more intense, but a little bit more nice because we get to have a little breather and get to go home as well.

Hear how Aidan went from anxious about exodontia to now feeling confident and enjoying his oral surgery list. https://youtu.be/cYl6zYMsRY8 Watch IC049 on Youtube We cover the themes of career progression, overcoming procedural fears and decision making early in our careers. At the end, Aidan shares a clever way to deliver saline when washing out sockets! Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Highlights of this Episode:00:00  Intro 01:47 Imposter Syndrome02:45 Aiden’s Story05:16 Daunting Experiences with Stubborn Canine06:48 How Aiden would approach things now07:33 Dental Pearl - 6 second rule09:56 What happened during COVID?18:08 After the Ipswich post, what happened?25:04 Aiden’s advice for young dentists 29:53 Lesson about photography35:13 Whole tooth extraction vs. sectioning?36:26 Sectioning School39:31 Outro Sterile Saline Pods Check out Sectioning School and the entire collection of masterclasses for just $450 Check out the First Video of Sectioning School for Free: https://youtu.be/mgVXGN_uiyg Case 1 of Sectioning School Occlusion Online Summer Sale - £100 OFF Expires 3rd June Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: Naturally when we qualify as dentists, we're not the most confident in a lot of procedures, especially oral surgery. It's a common theme, and obviously it depends on where you qualified from and how much surgical experience you had, but a common theme is being scared of extractions. Like, I've definitely been through it, I've talked about it a lot in terms of the power of sectioning teeth. [Jaz]But today I speak to a young dentist, Aidan, who went from being scared to now being really confident. And he's still a young dentist, about five years out, and he's found himself in an environment where maybe 50 percent of his diary is extractions. And this is what he wanted. This is what he designed. So listen to this interference cast today to explore Aidan's journey. There's a few little exodontia tips thrown in there and a really cool tip right at the end about how to actually get saline into your socket a really clever way, which I didn't know about, and I think is going to blow your mind. So if you want to hear that tip, you have to go all the way to the end. Hello, Protruserati, I'm Jaz Gulati, and welcome back to an interference cast. This is kind of like the non clinical arm of the podcast, although this is probably one of the most clinical ones that we've done. This one doesn't have premium notes. It doesn't have CPD, but this is a really warm episode when it comes to being inspired about someone's journey and the steps they take and learning about how someone came to a decision. Like I love something that Aidan says that he recognizes that he's not the best at multitasking and he really enjoys the idea of having focus and oral surgery ended up becoming a focus of his and this young dentist is now pursuing an implant masters and how one thing leads to another. So this is a really cool journey to unpack. So I hope you enjoy it. And if you gain something from this episode, don't forget to hit that like button. If you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening on Spotify or Apple, thanks so much for always coming back, really appreciate it. Do make sure you are subscribed so you don't miss an episode. It also helps Protrusive to grow. So I'd really appreciate that. Now let's join the main episode. [Aidan]I feel a bit like an imposter today. I feel like I've not really, I've just done what I've loved and enjoyed, and I've not really felt there's anything particularly that's special about it. [Jaz]I disagree completely. Aidan, I think everyone's got a unique story and you're going to be amazed about how many young dentists will just get some ideas. So, I mean, let's just say we've kicked off . Aidan? Yes. Welcome to the Protrusive Dental Podcast, my friend. How are you? [Aidan]Thanks, Jaz. Yeah,

Class II’s are only easy when they are small (but not too small), supragingival, easily accessible with straight-forward anatomy. In other words, about 1% of the Class IIs we encounter - because the vast majority I see are subgingival, wide, with awkward root concavities and tricky access. I went from using sectional matrices 97% of the time to now just using them 30% of the time - this is thanks to a circumferential matrix I started to use last year which is a game changer. I now do not need to use a wedge in most scenarios (something I used to think was a crime!) and have been using the ‘contact opening technique’. Meet Dr Sunny Sadana, who has brought the Greater Curve system to the UK and taught me a lot about efficiency with direct restorations. We also discuss fee-setting and patient communication - this part of the video is only available for those on our Protrusive Guidance network. https://youtu.be/QF3b8V_29Vw Watch PDP188 on Youtube Protrusive Dental Pearl  Pre-wedging; use this technique before beginning any restorative work on the tooth you are working on, this will allow a greater field of view to work in. It also helps suppress the papilla to get better access to the caries. This can all be achieved by numbing the area first and wedging with adequate enough pressure for there to be separation. It also reduced iatrogenic damage and is also worthwhile considering using a wedge-guard/fender wedge. Check out the DRE Composite Course Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Access the CPD quiz through our app on https://www.protrusive.app, either on your browser or by downloading our mobile app. For the full educational experience, our Ultimate Education Plan gives you access to all our courses, webinars, and exclusive monthly content. Join us on Protrusive Guidance, our own platform for dental professionals. No need for Facebook anymore! 😉 If you liked this episode, you will also like PDP104 Back to Back Class II Secrets (Sectional Matrix Troubleshooting) Click below for full episode transcript: Jaz's Introduction: The humble wedge gives us so many benefits when it comes to class II. Like, going back to basics, you put a wedge in for your class II, and it ensures that the matrix is right up against that cavity margin. So, wedging is important. Jaz’s Introduction:The other benefit, of course, is that it gives you some separation. And this helps to accommodate for the actual width of the matrix span, so that once you finish your restoration, you remove the wedge and hopefully the teeth will rebound and you'll have a contact. Another benefit of wedges is actually suppressing or depressing that papilla. It allows you to manage those deeper cavities with much more ease. So as you can see, I'm a fan of wedging and I even invest in all sorts of different types of wedges and those low profile diamond wedges for those trickier and deeper scenarios. So why is this episode on doing your class two restorations without a wedge? Isn't that a little bit crazy? Hello Protruserati, I'm Jaz Gulati and welcome back to your favorite dental podcast. So let me tell you, it was like a paradigm shift. It was a big shift in my thinking when I started to use this technique without a wedge because the wedge has so many benefits, but how many times have you introduced the wedge and seen that your matrix band has completely now moved away from your contact? You have an open contact now. And sometimes a bit like the ring, the wedge can distort your matrix. So if there is a way to do good quality class three restorations and get a contact and get a seal without needing to use a wedge, then that is worth exploring. And that's exactly what we're doing today. My guest, Dr. Sunny Sadana is a major fan of the greater curve matrix band. He's a distributor in the UK. Now, many of you in the States watching, listening to this.