Sedation and anesthesia for dentistry has come under scrutiny in the past few years due to a few tragic events where patients experienced harm. These events have raised several questions: are these just isolated incidents due to negligence in clinicians’ practices; did these patients pose unforeseeable challenges; and ultimately, what is the safety of dentistry … Read more
What better way to learn how to be successful than through the experiences of your peers and colleagues. Throughout our lives, we draw from our own experiences to make decisions and conclusions. Making informed decisions is a quality that will help you lead the life you want and more importantly, become as successful as you … Read more
Introduction For dentists who have a keen interest in Cosmetic Dentistry, it is exciting when a patient expresses an interest to change their smile. It allows us to perform and deliver dentistry that can be immensely rewarding and life changing for a patient. Patients who have high esthetic demands can be a challenge but also … Read more
Preamble Since the appearance of HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s, clinical dentists, academics and the profession’s regulatory agencies have been concerned about the possibility of an HIV/AIDS positive patient transmitting the infection to the attending dentist. A recent report in the American Journal of Infection Control categorically refutes this possibility. Prior to discussing these new findings, … Read more
Clinical Problem A 63-year-old female visited the dental clinic at the Jewish General Hospital with chief complaints of jaw pain, bilateral clicking, limited mouth opening, had migraine of 8 years duration, feeling fatigued and unrefreshed in the morning. The patient complains of TMD pain symptoms that began two years ago, involving both sides of the … Read more
Traumatic injuries to teeth and their supporting structures comprise approximately five percent of all traumatic injuries.1 Clinical and radiographic examinations are integral parts of diagnosis and treatment planning. Occlusal and periapical images have been suggested to determine the extent of damage to dentoalveolar structures. Due to their limitations as two-dimensional imaging modalities, it is necessary … Read more
There are various indications for deep sedation and general anesthesia (DS/GA) in dentistry, including anxiety associated with dental treatment, pre-cooperative age, traumatic or extensive dental procedures, and cognitive impairment or motor dysfunctions.1–3 Although many of the patients who fall into these categories require DS/GA in order to facilitate dental treatment, not all of them are … Read more
Given the epidemic of narcotic abuse in Canada, it is important we discuss choices when prescribing opiods. We should be both more pensive prior to picking up our prescription pad and more careful when prescribing opiod analgesia to our patients. It now goes without saying that we should optimize all means of non-opioid analgesia to … Read more
So, what do you do?” is a question often asked at social gatherings. Everyone has a story. Few of us have actually thought one out. How might we answer? Does the simple response “I’m a dentist” tell us anything about who we really are? Might it even arouse unpleasant thoughts? The unfortunate reality is that … Read more
Honesty is such a lonely word – Billy Joel Bias and integrity are strange bedfellows. They are two qualities that we speak of in absolute terms although there is no absolute measure for them. Both qualities force us to look at ourselves critically, an exercise often avoided because all too often we end up not … Read more