Using Composite Resin in Aesthetic Restorative Dentistry

Part 5 - Restoring function

Instructors:

Buddy Mopper, DDS

Buddy Mopper, DDS

Dr. Bud Mopper is an internationally renowned lecturer in esthetic dentistry with an emphasis on composite bonding using direct application techniques.  Dr. Mopper is in private practice in Glenview, Illinois, where he has been doing minimally invasive dentistry with composite for 40 years.

Dr. Mopper discusses how to restore this patients function by adding canine rise with composites

All right. Marcia's problem is, we've restored these abfracted areas on her, and they look beautiful. But if you look at her smile, she's, on the right hand side, she's got a nice curveous and the teeth aren't following her smile line. But what she's done, is she's done excessive grinding on the left side. Maybe she, she might be just a lateral grinder especially towards the left side. Move your jaw towards me. Towards me. Keep coming. Doesn't go any further. That's right. Keep coming. Keep coming. I can't. Yes you can. Uh uh. There's a reason she can't is 'cause she's in group function, okay? But I'm gonna get her out of that group function. And I work by adding to the canine rise and it's so beautiful to do with composites, it's unbelievable. Better to do with composites, especially in a mouth like this, where she has an imposing dentition, that is natural dentition. And so, that you won't get any wear. If you were gonna do canine rise in porcelain, you'd have to do porcelain to porcelain. I don't have to do that. And I get beautiful disclusion and it lasts forever, literally, if you get the function right. At the same time, I'm gonna be able to lengthen this lateral once I get the disclusion properly with the canine rise. So that's what we're gonna do. So first thing you have to do in order to do that, you don't lengthen the lateral first. You lengthen the canine, then you lengthen the lateral after you got the disclusion. That's what we're gonna go in and do after this session right here. You also work on protrusion. We want a sizable guidance. We don't want a, say, you've got a fractured upper central incisor, and you fix it, we don't wanna balance that tooth just on, on that central incisor. We want both centrals to balance. So we look at the balance and protrusion as well as in excursive movements. We want that person to function. You can't believe how better, much better the patient feels when you do give him back in that function. You get him out of group function. That's, the worst thing you can be is in group function. I know, I was there. And I had my partner take care of that with composite resin, changed the whole, the way I feel, changed the way, changed the way, a lot of things. We're just gonna show you now that Marcia now has disclusion since I built this canine upside Marcia. Slide towards Gracie, Marcia. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Lower jaw towards me. Your lower jaw. There you go. Hold it right there. You got the shot? You got it. There's your disclusion, okay? The only problem is, that it's really not on right the way you're sliding, it's not on the, it's on the lateral, you see it's not on canine, which it shouldn't be. But now it's on canine, there she is. Now you're right. That's perfect. You got it. You got the shot. Okay. All right, let's finish this up a little bit. Oops. Sorry. I'm so sorry, are you okay? No, here. Here you go. Let's just finish this a little bit then we'll go to the other one. And do it, and then we'll finish them together. Open big. For your next patient, do you use the same equipment, the same set up? Everything. Uh hmm. Yup. Everything's the same. The other one's really easy. You'll see how easy that is to do. It's beautiful. It's a great technique. And it's won thousands . . . guys can make . . . you know how much a dentist can make? Unbelievable. They don't even know how to do it. See I don't care if a guy doesn't feel like they wanna do a composite resin veneer, that doesn't bother me. They don't want it, but don't let anybody ever tell that they can't do it. That bothers me, okay? Let me have a . . . yeah, yeah, yeah. But the thing I want them to know is how much dentistry they can do with this stuff and do beautifully. I mean, this all blends into itself. Now you can see how nicely . . . now we're going through the FlexiDisc system, and we're just polishing with the FlexiDisc system, going through the different grit sizes, this is . . . we went through medium, now we're going through fine. And I blended this into the other composite. You can't even see it, you see? And that's fast. This is a medium cup. And then we'll just polish it with a . Well, if you do restorative work without treating the functional issues, the restorative work won't hold up. So a function, like they say, form and function goes together. That's exactly what's true. And unfortunately, what most people do, is they fix the form, and forget the function. And in doing so, they blame the failure on the restorative material and not themselves. And so we look at, when we make a diagnosis, we always look at what the problem is, what causes the problem, and we fix that along with the problem itself, okay? And it may cause the person more money, but in the long run, it's gonna save them a ton of money. And it's gonna save the dentition long-term. And we do it. What we did today, was done through minimally invasive dentistry. You saw the procedures. There's no better way to restore a patient's mouth. That's why we're dentists. It always, it always bothers me a lot, that a person who's been trained in the dental school, who's paid all that money to go to school, doesn't value their own expertise. And as far as I'm concerned, what I do is more valuable than anything that a laboratory will do for a patient. If you don't have to do it. That doesn't mean we don't do lab work, that doesn't mean we don't do crowning and bridging when it's necessary. But the thing about it is, that dentists don't realize that they need to charge for their services that are really great. And I think the service I render is great. And in order to do what I do, it takes time. In order to make it worth my while, I have to be paid for it. Most people are undercharging for composite resin, because they don't value composite resin. If they learned how to do it properly, and how easily it can be maintained and how to teach the patient as well as their hygienist in the hygiene department, how to maintain it, they won't believe how long it lasts. I'll put up the durability of composite resin restorations over porcelain any day. In fact, I'll blow them away. From a tissue management standpoint, you can't beat composite resin. This is my philosophy. It's been forty years I've been doing this. I'm a one-man show, as far as the type of practice I have. 'Cause all I do is composite resin, period. And all, basically, I do it aesthetically on twenty to twenty four anterior teeth, even the first molars we veneer, and they stand up beautifully. So materials, the materials that I use and I developed stand the test of time. The person who wants, goes out to get the system, they need to get a complete system, not a partial system. They need the instrumentation, they need the armentarium to finish and polish, they need to be able to apply it appropriately, they need to know the preparations that are going to give them the best result and that's what I'm all about. so this is my philosophy of doing composite dentistry and there's nothing like minimally invasive dentistry. I'm 74 years old and I'll never quit and what's kept me there is I not only do I realize how great it is but my patients realize it and realize the value. It's the only dentistry where my patients smile when they write the check so that's it for me. So that's where I come from.