Introducing SCULPT – the new home learning composite resin masterclass for all levels

Dr. Shiraz Khan, along with his dental student colleague Curran Patel, has formulated a revolutionary training system and pathway for dentists, dental students and therapists to practice their manual composite skills at home.

What has been created?

SCULPT – Practice Makes Permanent

Using 3-D scanning and printing technology, accurate replicate models of teeth have been created with pre-made cavities in the replica teeth. This is sent to registered delegates along with a training pack for a live hands-on training session once monthly. For less than a coffee a day, delegates can tune in for a live session with Shiraz, our resident aesthetic dental surgeon at LCIAD, for mastering posterior composites wherever they may be.

‘This pack has been created to be affordable and accessible to the entire dental profession, including students’, says Shiraz.

Feedback from colleagues has been very encouraging, with comments from the dental profession such as: “exciting innovation”, “a dedication to education in dentistry” and “an intelligent idea”.

The inception of this idea was bought about by the change in circumstances resulting from the COVID pandemic preventing face to face teaching. As many will know, Shiraz is an internationally recognized and respected lecturer and has a keen interest in aesthetic restorative dentistry. A common lecturing topic/subject is the use of composite resin to restore teeth to their ideal form and anatomy. Using the SCULPT platform, Shiraz will now be able to extend training to all parts of the dental profession worldwide, with current delegates being based in the UK, several European countries and Canada.

The kit includes a model of each quadrant, a light curing handpiece, 3 hand instruments and a composite syringe. This really allows for everything to be contained within a single box, with updates in materials, instruments and composite resin shades being sent to delegates bi-monthly to quarterly. The delegates will then tune in live for a session using videoconferencing, where Shiraz will have an optimised, dedicated AV setup for hands-on teaching. This has been beta-tested on several courses already and has been received incredibly well.

We are most proud of the fact that this is really a revolution that has not been piloted or undertaken before. Shiraz and Curran have really broken the mould with this thrilling new approach and are market leaders in providing hands-on dental education in the comfort of your own home.

We are excited to be part of such a project and look forward to the progress of this fantastic initiative.

Halitosis  

Halitosis (bad breath) is a common complaint amongst patients. There are many possible causes of bad breath, ranging from dehydration, dietary choices, mouth-drying medication, chest infections or acid reflux.  However, around 90% of cases are due to poor oral hygiene, periodontal (gum) disease, coating on the tongue, food stuck between teeth, unclean dentures, faulty dental work or throat infections. During lockdown, many patients have neglected going to the hygienist. Those close to them have started commenting on their less-than-ideal oral odour that has developed that no amount of mouthwash can mask or eliminate.  

Seeing your dentist and hygienist regularly is the most important factor in correctly diagnosing the cause of the problem. 

Dental bacterial plaque 

The leading cause of bad breath is poor oral hygiene. If we do not brush and floss our teeth thoroughly, including in between the teeth, then this leaves behind a sticky layer we call dental plaque. This plaque is the accumulation of bacteria held together with saliva, fluid, food deposits sticky chemicals produced by the bacteria themselves.  The levels of bacteria grow throughout the day, and over a prolonged period of time there can be as many as 600 different types of bacteria present in the oral cavity. Bacteria also produce pungent chemicals called volatile sulphur compounds (VSC’s) that are detectable as halitosis. Plaque grows at the gumline of the teeth but can extend over the whole tooth and extend under the gumline causing gum disease and deep pockets that harbour even more bacteria.  

Your mouth is at a continuous temperature of 35-37 degrees which allows plaque to grow rapidly. In fact, bacterial plaque starts to become visible after 12 hours, which is why we brush our teeth twice daily. By brushing every 12 hours, you are breaking that cycle of bacteria growing and building itself into a developed layer of plaque. 

Plaque that is left then mineralises into calculus (tartar) that has a rough and porous surface that harbours and encourages the growth of even more bacterial plaque volume. 

Thorough professional cleaning to remove these deposits from above and below the gum very regularly (we advise 4 times a year) is the single simplest way to avoid gum disease and to prevent plaque maturing into sufficient volume that can cause detectable bad breath. 

We will also help you develop and hone your personal home care to ensure that your teeth and gums remain healthy between visits. 

Hydration and tongue coatings

Hydration and drinking enough plain water throughout the day is important. Having a dry mouth means having less saliva which is important to dilute chemicals that cause bad breath and to neutralise the pH levels in our mouth. Having a dry mouth can also lead to a white coating on the tongue, which can also contribute to halitosis. If you notice that you have a white coating on your tongue, ensure you are drinking enough water, not just tea and coffee! Ideally adults should be consuming around 6-8 glasses of fluids a day.  

If you have a good fluid intake but you still have a white coating on your tongue, then you may want to invest in a tongue scraper to remove it. Tongue scrapers can be found in large chemists and online.  

If you are worried about halitosis, the most important thing you can do is to book an appointment with your dentist or hygienist, who will provide a personalised and tailored oral hygiene routine, to eliminate the cause, and get rid of halitosis.  

Deteriorating dental work 

Leaking dental work or older dentures also provide surfaces and nooks and crannies for bacteria to collect. If you have tried all of the above it may be that your dental work may need investigating or your dentures require professional cleaning and disinfection. We can also arrange this for you. 

Whilst there are other causes of halitosis including chest infections or gastric problems, it is best to eliminate all possible dental causes first with your hygienist.  

Come and let us treat and prevent bad breath before your partner, friends or colleagues have to tell you! 

Anyone who has completed our Medical and Dental Questionnaire knows that we take the medical well-being of our patients at LCIAD very seriously.

Medical emergencies in dental practice are thankfully rare. Some practitioners may go their whole lives without seeing one. However, this is precisely why it is important to train regularly and meaningfully to ensure that the whole team is up to date with our emergency procedures and knows their equipment, drugs and protocols. This is not just a tick box exercise. We train with an experienced Medical Emergencies trainer to deal efficiently and correctly with real emergency situations that may emerge in dental practice. The LCIAD team last trained for medical emergencies in dental practice in the summer of 2020 after re-opening following lockdown. This time, it was for advanced immediate life support for scenarios involving dental sedation where our patient is under the influence of sedative drugs.

Our management of medical emergencies is regularly updated to a high standard with hands-on, realistic scenarios devised by our experienced trainer Pete Chell of Quest Dental Training and Development. Pete is member of the European Resuscitation Council, the Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Generic Instructor Course (GIC) faculty. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning (ITOL).

The training involves the use of data from real scenarios to test our rapid diagnostic and life support skills. We train with patient assessment checklists and revise and practice Airway maintenance, Breathing support, Circulatory support, assessment of Disability and when to Expose the patient to assess for systemic problems to allow access for medical life support whilst maintaining dignity. (The Resuscitation Council UK’s ABCDE approach.)

Training included an update on appropriate use of emergency drugs, oximeter, blood sugar monitor, blood pressure monitoring, automatic defibrillator and use of CPR. Conditions such as fainting, angina, cardiac arrest, acute asthma, anaphylaxis, choking and airway obstruction, hypoglycaemia, epileptic fits, over-sedation and unexpected bleeding were all covered. The team tested its response time to diagnosis and its efficiency in providing emergency life support in scenarios that may occur in practice at any time.

We are most grateful to Pete Chell for his training methods and testing our knowledge, combining seriousness with fun and in making this course memorable and thought-provoking. We all look forward to welcoming him back in the summer for our annual medical emergencies training update.