In 2022, I returned to our practice, having participated in the Haute Route with Alex and Louis.
I got back here tired and ecstatic about what we'd done. For the first time ever, we went straight into the Rony Jung Masterclass, where he taught us about Ridge preservation and the concept of Ridge preservation following tooth extraction in preparation for implant surgery and anything else that may happen.
I thought that when Rony was coming, it was going to be this extraordinary, exceptional, high-level thing that I would be unable to achieve but would aspire to.
It's fine to push yourself towards perfection; it's just not fine to think you'll ever get there, but it wasn't like that.
What he taught us about ridge preservation was just another string to our bow; it was another procedure that we could carry out starting the next day and, in the right circumstances, would make a massive difference to our patients.
He also taught us that it wasn't for specialists at all; it was for everyone. It was for people who were interested in looking at patients and thinking, How can I work with biology to make this better? How can I preserve what I already have so that I don't have to replace it in the future?
That's the thing about ridge preservation, it just reduces the damage that otherwise surgeons cause by extractions and removal.
And so, the other day in the clinic, I saw a patient four months after ridge preservation, an old lady who doesn't want to have implant treatment done, but she needed to have three upper front teeth out.
She's having a chrome denture, but I talked to her and her husband at length about the advantage of keeping her architecture as good as possible for a chrome denture construction, and she thought that that was a good idea based on my recommendation (I guess that's the trick).
And so, three months ago, she had three ridge preservations at the upper front part of her mouth, and the photographic results are, well, quite extraordinary and beyond that which I could have ever imagined.
It's not perfect, it doesn't stop everything shrinking, but it makes an enormous difference, and it allows people to have better results with the treatment that comes next.
The trick is asking them if they would like that and giving them the choice.
So, the string that I added to my bow opened the door to somewhere else. It made me focus and concentrate on something different, making me a better surgeon, a better diagnostician, and just a better clinician.
This is a technique for anyone who does dentistry, at least anyone who extracts teeth and dentistry.
For the second time, my friend, colleague, and inspirational clinician Beatriz Sanchez will be presenting a day on ridge preservation to give you the skills, too, to add another string to your bow and allow you to walk through the door to somewhere else.
Details are here if you're interested.
Look forward to seeing you.
Blog Post Number - 3949