Editorial 5/9/2024 No matter what country you work in, the expectation of your patients is that you - as a dentist or hygienist – are highly educated and keep up with the latest scientific literature.  And as many of you well know, in a busy practice this is extremely hard to do.  The typical approach has been to participate in a weekend class or lecture, go to lectures at a dental convention, join in a study club with monthly lectures, or return to school for additional training.  All of these approaches consume what little free time we have as professionals.  So what is a dental clinician to do to pursue continuing education? The answer is online education.  With the advent of computers and the internet as well as advances in media software it is now possible to take courses that fit into the time frame of the dental clinician and not...

Editorial April 8, 2013Recently in Oklahoma, USA, an Oral Surgeon was accused of a number of State practice act infractions associated with patient care including possible infection of patients with HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C; with this arising out of problems with infection control procedures at two of his practices.  What is specifically identified in reports is the use of ‘rusty instruments’ and ‘lax sterilization procedures’.  Apparently over 7000 patients may have been exposed to these viruses. One question that has arisen related to this clinician’s apparent unprofessional conduct is the role, if any, of dental assistant training as a potential contributor to the problem.  The question is: should dental assistants have been certified to work in this practice involving surgical intervention as is the case within the medical profession where surgery is involved; and would this have made a difference in how infection control procedures were managed. According to...

CAD/CAM use in dentistry has increased dramatically in the last two decades.  The accuracy of the marginal fit of restorations made using CAD/CAM systems has been shown to be excellent even though there may be differences based on the technique, ceramic type, and the interaction of the two.  For example, in a recent study by Hamza and colleagues (J Prosthet Dent. 2013 Feb;109(2):83-7) it was shown that differences existed between the Cerec inLab and Kavo Everest system with respect to the marginal fit of two types of zirconia-based and lithium disilicate crowns.  Since marginal fit is an important component of restoration longevity, it is important to know which system or systems provide the best marginal integrity (or if there is no significant difference between systems).  Additional research should help to clarify this issue. In relation to longevity, there has been concern about the use of CAD/CAM all-ceramic partial-coverage restoration systems and...

In the past 13 years a move has been made to develop scientifically based clinical guidelines to help dental professionals use evidence based decision making in their choices related to all manner of treatment procedures.  In fact, according to at least one source, if one searches the US National Guidelines Clearing House there are over 232 guidelines covering an extensive array of dental procedures. See: http://www.nature.com/ebd/journal/v5/n1/full/6400243a.htmlhttp://www.guidelinecentral.com/summary-specialty/dentistryhttp://ebd.ada.org/ClinicalRecommendations.aspx However there is considerable overlap related to the published guidelines and in relation to specific ‘national’ standards. In Canada the ‘Canadian Collaboration on Clinical Practice Guidelines in Dentistry (CCCGD) was formed as a national autonomous organization to promote responsible clinical practice guidelines for Canadian dentists.  According to the ‘Journal of Evidence Based Dentistry’ as of 2004 this was the only evidence-based guideline group specific to dentistry (there are other organizations that include dentistry in their guidelines, such as the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) or...

As Editor in Chief, I am pleased to announce that the 'Dental Hub' which was part of Health Imaging Hub previously has a new name: inceDental with standalone identity and website.  Since its inception in October 2010, our dental portal has significantly increased its subscriber database and today is considered one of the top preferred online destinations for dental professionals worldwide. Because of increased visitors and substantial growth, NZH Tech, Inc., owner of the Hub, made the decision to make it a 'stand alone' site which has been renamed inceDental to fully define its uniqueness as a place for daily fresh news, commentary, scientific studies, white papers, case studies, online education and several other topics of interest for the international (and regional) dental community. And one of the most exciting newer features of inceDental, resulting from a partnership with "xpAPce: Expert Dental CE", is the inclusion of CERP accredited (American Dental...