GS1: Opening General Session: The Perio Restorative Team Approach to Saving Teeth

Speakers

Description

Often, today’s dentistry has taken the approach that a dental implant is a more suitable treatment approach than rehabilitating a tooth with a moderate to poor prognosis. This has led to a significant increase in the number of salvageable teeth being removed in favor of implant therapy. At times, the implant therapy requires far more extensive treatment workflows than a traditional perio-restorative approach focused on saving teeth. During this session, two master clinicians who have invested several decades of their practice in saving and retaining teeth in functional occlusion will share their knowledge and expertise. Their talk will showcase challenging cases where the dentition has been maintained through meticulous treatment planning and collaborative multidisciplinary care. Dr. Howard Chasolen will focus on the benefit of saving teeth with poor prognoses. Dr. David Mathews will speak on dispelling the myth of the hopeless tooth. His talk will address the “excuses” for extracting teeth and placing implants: “it has root resorption,” “it has advanced bone loss,” and “it has a fractured root.”

Educational Objectives:
• Identify the potential issues with favoring implant treatment over saving natural teeth.
• Show a protocol utilizing a TEAM approach of a periodontist and restorative dentist for predictably saving teeth with poor prognoses and their long term follow ups.
• Understand the prognosis for the 6 types of root resorption.
• Discover the benefits of prolonging the life of “hopeless” teeth.
• Learn how to sequence treatment for the “hopeless” tooth, culminating in a lasting result and a happy patient.