- This topic is empty.
-
I wanted to thank all the folks who helped with this seminar this past weekend. It was great hearing the basics now that I’ve used the lasers and it means something. And the instructors are doing some truly amazing things with the lasers. I am feeling inspired to stretch my envelope.
Thanks to Glenn van As, Don Coluzzi, Don Wilson, John Graeber, Larry Kotlow, Don Wilson. It was a very professional, non-judgemental group. Even made a Biolase user or 2 welcome
.Also a great time meeting Al Boholst, Dave Kimmel and Allen Williams.
I feel great about having these folks as my colleagues.
See you all at the ALD!
Best regards
Janet
Hi Janet: It certainly was great meeting everyone and putting a face to the names. i had met Allen Williams and yourself before but never Albert , or David Kimmel. I think for a first time effort it went of as advertised with a few things that can be improved for Feb 6-8, 2004 at the next meeting.
There were some unique lectures there and I think that everyone got some great information out of the lectures.
Don Coluzzi and John Graeber are long time users and friends, who show how lasers can be used scientifically for both hard and soft tissue. They explained the science for all involved so that we could better be able to understand the rationale for why one laser may not be able to do everything well. These lectures were designed to help those taking the Standard Proficiency test.
Larry Kotlow knows how the erbium laser can be used for linqual tongue ties, and for frenectomies and the benefit of using it for children in todays dental office. His presentation had tons of video shot through the dental operating microscope and was great for showing how to do soft tissue with the erbium.
Don Wilson is awesome at marketing with the laser. He has a company called Dental Promotions which is used for the marketing of lasers and he showed how he has grown his practice through lasers to 2.4million per year with under 10% of his practice money directly obtained from lasers but how the bulk of his new patients come for the laser and have those treatments done prior to revenue generating crown and bridge. He has grown from 1 million a year and 80 new patients amonth, to a 3 doc practice (looking for #4) and 187 patients a month.
He has heavily marketed in newspapers and has a promotional company that sells three tiers of marketing advertisements for laser dentists and he can be reached at
256 767 3228
I thought his speech was phenomenal (as usual) and he comes at this from Rods avenue with numbers and advice on how to use the laser to build a practice.
John Graebers lecture on apicos was great on Saturday and it showed how he is using the laser as an alternative to providing this treatment for his patients.
Tim Adams talked about soft tissue recontouring using the Hoya 810 nm diode for esthetics and I thought he did a bang up job of tieing in the LVI smile guideline principles with the laser topic. I tried to use some of his ideas to help out with our case which we demonstrated live on Saturday via video from the Dental operating microscope in another room to those watching on a monstrous screen in another room. I wanted to personally thank Allen Williams for volunteering for this event and for our other volunteer who allowed everyone to see how the different lasers (810 nm vs 2940 nm ) could both be used for soft tissue recontouring WITHOUT anesthetic.
Allen allowed me to do an incisal on his canine without anesthetic and he was a great patient. ITs nerve wracking doing the restoration on someone you know and LIKE (GRIN) without anesthetic infront of a live audience, there is no where to hide.
The tissue recontouring on our lady friend was complicated by time constraints as well but I thought and hope that everyone gained something from the meeting.
In closing , I truly enjoyed talking to David Kimmel who has a biolase and is to be credited for wanting to obtain as much information as possible about lasers and he took a few of my pot shots in my lecture with a big smile. Thanks David.
Allen, thanks for taking the time to help me out in the live demo part, that was very kind.
Albert , it was great talking to you and seeing your excitement for lasers and your knowledge too, really helps inspire us all.
Finally, Janet, its great to see how someone who has bought the erbium is so excited to still come and learn about other uses for it. You sure do approach life and dentistry with enthusiasm and Howard and you make a great couple.
Thanks to everyone who made the trip so enjoyable, and I look forward to catching up with you all soon.
Glenn
Here is one pic of the smile enhancement we did yesterday during the live demo………some of the recontouring was done with the erbium at
20 Hz and 30 mj no water with air
some was done with the diode at 700 mj , 15 Hz
No anesthetic at all for any of it.
Probing was done before hand to give an idea of biologic width.
Glenn
Hi there folks: I edited the pics for you.
Here is what we did for our patient who really was great throughout the process.
We only used topical (ultracare from ultradent).
Took floss and checked out the horizontal component after probing to measure the tissue amount that we could do we then did the following treatment plan.
1. Raise #7 to try and make the tooth longer by 1-1.5mm. We used the diode at 700 mj (.7 watts) and 15Hz with no anesthetic on this one. Less bleeding was observed during the process. Usually I will use anesthetic for this but the patient was fine in pulsed mode. Continuous wave is too much for most people so we pulsed the laser to get this one done.
2. Round out #8 to make the gingival sulcus better and match #9 as it was not the same shape at the zenith or the same height. Erbium laser used at 20 Hz and 30 mj without water but with air.
3. Adjust the #10 to make the shape more similar to the #7 symmetry wise and we did this with the diode at the same measurements as the #7.
4. Then we debulked the papilla which were inflamed from the gingivitis which was present. 20 Hz and 30 mj without water. You can shave down the papillae to make them less bulky. Its easier to do it with this wavelength than with the diode. Diode was observed to do less bleeding.
The patient had a little postop pain from the procedure but that was due to the spicy chicken at dinner but otherwise she was fine!!
I hope that this case was ok, it was tough to do with a new dental assistant in a new operatory without me knowing where everyone was without a monitor to check my photos (framing them prior to taking them), without my assistant to take the photos, being nervous infront of so many users , showing them my work at 16X power on a HUGE screen in another room without the benefit of microphone which didnt work on a lady whom I really had never seen clinically before she sat down in the chair.
THe floss trick Tim Adams showed me and it worked great. It was great to get feedback from others on the procedure during the 30 mins or so it took us to do the treatment.
Hope you like the detailed photos……..
Cya
Glenn
It was sure a great meeting. Nothing like meeting old friends for the first time. Annette sorry about meeting you. Next time.
I came back with a much better understanding about how lasers work. More importantly how to use this information chairside. Not to mention how to use the science to pickup on BS.
Albert we won’t talk about how you got us lost going from the airport to the hotel!!! Next time you get to ride with Allen with your head out the window!!!!
Glenn, I am not buying a scope. I am not buying a scope. Is that meeting in Nov about scopes??
DAvidGlenn, Class act. You need to talk with Allen. I tried to get him to stick a dozen cotton rolls in his mouth after his restoration. Then walk up to later at dinner saying he had a little problem.
You are sooo luck Allen is a great guy.Hard Rock Casino. What are you talking about? You must have me confused with someone else. I stayed in the hotel room at night and studied!!! Sure was a strange group from the bachlorette party!!
David