Patient had implant placed December 20, 2025. we initially attempted to place temporary crown in August and patient was complaining of a ton of pressure and throbbing that did not dissipate. It appeared that it may have been slightly loose causing that tissue pressure. Recently just reinserted crown and patient is still complaining of the pressure. The surgeon doesn’t seem to think there’s anything wrong with the implant, but I have never had this issue before and I’m just looking for opinions as to what we think Might the issue be.

Delivered this bridge- is this acceptable? The lab kept getting that distal wrong and I found this to be sealed and the patient was growing impatient with the process. The margins are underneath the gums on that distal aspect. Lmk what you guys think.

One of my hygienist is on medical leave. I've had the pleasure of dealing with a rotating cast of temporary hygienists over the last 3 months. I'm dealing with the 4th last minute cancellation by a temp in 2 weeks. Its always the same type. The perma temps that don't want a permanent job. They are lazy, unprofessional and entitled. One had the galls to tell me that 15 minute prophies are totally fine when I schedule her for an hour. Another spend all day on her phone and then stayed 30 minutes after hour so she can write her notes. I cannot wait for this hygienist shortage to be over. - end rant.

New grad here - I struggle with cases like this and explaining all the options and thinking about what will work and what won’t.

~62F. No pain. She wants to keep teeth and keep them looking good.

Thinking just crowning 31 (survey crown with cast partial) and crown 15, RCT 24 - even though last time I put endo ice on 24 and she said she felt it - but it doesn’t look like PCOD (although she is African American). I’ll Suggest crowns on 23-26 but she probably won’t do them - but important to have most ideal tx plan in chart.

Unfortunately don’t have a PA of #7 but that I’ll say is a crown if there’s recurrent (and even if there’s not - obviously a huge filling)

I’ve told the patient this is a case where we might try and just hold on to what we’ve got, crown the teeth that are broken (15,31) and can continue with crowns as she is able. I’m not sure if her financials although she does have private insurance (big deal in our office since most of our patients are Medicaid)

As far as replacing teeth - I can suggest implants UR and LL but also will lean towards partial on bottom since she may lose any of those teeth in the future.

Idk obviously I could type out more but I just want to lay these out here. Lots going on. Just feel a bit overwhelmed at these as a new grad when I come in for a hygiene check and see this.

Any advice or suggestions or affirmation appreciated.

I wanted to post this as HR for Health does setup at dental conventions and you are probably curious how it would work at a dental practice or in general. Theres also not much about it on this subreddit.

I went to FDC 2026 in Orlando and I spoke to the man at the booth. HR for Health is a service that is supposed to provide onboarding, offloading and other documents digitally. They would even write handbooks with you. They provide a payroll service which was much cheaper than the one I had so I did the payroll HR package.

The first major problem arises when I went to onboard to payroll. They did not support semi-monthly payrolls despite the sales person saying it would. I would either have to switch up my payroll or just take it off the package. I took it off.

The second problem is with the HR platform. Its needlessly complicated. Complicated to the point that there are 3 mandatory training sessions to set it up. Once more any ticket you open will be at the mercy of their timing. They would call and not leave a direct call back number. When I call back, I get into a queue that's backed up.

The last problem came with their digital paperwork. Some of which can be marked completed without being filled out. Particularly the I-9 forms. I was onboarding a Dental Assistant and noticed her I-9 was completed despite having no Drivers license or passport number on the document itself. I reached out to HR for Health and they said those require a wet signature. Which means I need to print the forms, sign them and scan them back in. This defeated the rest of the purpose of getting the software.

From there I reached out to cancel. They offered 2 months free but I would still be required to complete the rest of my payments for the 12 month contract (9 months remaining) , I declined and then they offered me to reduce my plan to a cheaper tier but my contract would be renewed for another 12 months. I declined that as well.

I am on month four of my contract and offered to pay them 2 months as a cancellation fee. The person on the phone spoke to an "operations manager" ( that I cant contact directly) and he declined my offer.

In the end, I feel like I have been scammed with their empty promises and zero value.

TL;DR Avoid HR for Health and do HR in-house. Also if a software company is doing a term contract, gtfo because they dont believe what they are selling has value.

I was performing a routine MOD in the right upper first molar, during the LA injection ( lido with epi ) the pts cheek started to go pale, i had negative aspiration during the whole technique, was that a vasospasm ?

Was pretty proud of the onlays on 35-36 but I encountered a hitch during seating.

Dual cure luting material hardened a bit too fast, leaving a slightly open distal margin on the molar.

I sealed the margin with flowable and packable composite, completely smoothe now on probing. Floss enters and exits perfectly without snagging. Patient is happy with the result and has no sensitivity. The problem is, despite having fixed the margin, I do see a radiolucency at the distal portion of the molar, reflecting the slightly misplaced onlay during seating.

As a dentist with relatively little clinical experience, I wonder if this is a big deal to more seasoned practitioners?

Other than informing the patient that recalls are important and comping them if the onlay fails prematurely, is there anything to do?

Should I be optimistic about the prognosis?

Hello fellow colleagues!

I don’t hade supermuch endo-experience, so asking if you guys have some answers!

I have been looking for a third (and maybe even 4th) canal on this no. 17 (#2 for the yankees) but cannot find it for the life of me. Should i drill more to the distal of the mb canal? Or does this tooth look like a two:er?

Secondly, the crack in the mb, is this salvageable with a crown? Or should i just extract it? For context no deep pockets.

Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone!

I hope someone has went through this and could help. I applied to the Canadian schools for 2027 GPR but have not received any interviews yet. I’m an Irish dental school graduate (Canadian citizen) and have practiced for the past year in private clinic. My class rank is in top 50%, and I worked at the dental school too as an administration assistant.

Is there something that they are looking for particularly? High GPA? Fresh grads? Canadian dental school grads? Connections to the admins?

Thank you for all and any help!

Hello,

I’m a new hire in northern USA. I work at a practice with other associates. The owner does not practice with us. So far, we are splitting all of the new patients up evenly. I feel that I should get more new patients than the other docs because that’s all I have and the other docs have their entire populations on goo of the new patients we are all getting.

For example, I average 3 hygiene checks a day, maybe even less. The other docs get probably 10. I’ve brought this up to the OM. She says that they get more hygeine checks because they have their own patients that are used to seeing them. That’s fair but I feel like if that’s the case then I should be getting more than equal amounts of new patients.

Is it normal for the new docs to get most of the new patients or is it more normal to split evenly? I don’t want to complain about something if the way my practice is doing it is normal, and I don’t want to take new patients from the other associates. But at the same time it’s very difficult to fill my schedule when I have 3 hygeine checks/new patients (total) a day.

Thanks for the input

Hello! I am an associate dentist and 15 weeks pregnant with twins as my first pregnancy. I’m looking for any input regarding when I should expect to be physically unable to work any longer before delivery (if everything is healthy and “normal”). I have really no idea what to expect as I’ve never been pregnant before, let alone with twins. Thank you!

I do almost all operative with an 1157. Looking to switch to a diamond version and give that a shot. Thanks in advance.

Crown 18 / I didn’t place it but it looks greatttt!!
Just a small space on medial contact.
I want to walk tooth forward with a essix retainer.
I’ve never done it before.
How do I do that? Can someone walk me step by step please

i bought this autoclave for my clinic yesterday and i can’t figure out how to use it
the guy who sold it to me told me to connect the suction hose in the back but it doesnt consume water at all and the autoclave says (NO WATER)
any help please

I'm still not fully convinced on AI and a bit hesitant...

But boy, do I wish things could run more efficiently.

To be honest, I am leaning more towards possible AI implementation for insurance verifications/ confirming appointments, etc,

On one side, as a caller I hate talking to AI that keeps talking BS and traps me in a circle, but recently had some friends recommend it for the said purposes.

Maybe things got much better while I havent been paying attention?

Anyone have some feedback for those?

It's really difficult to find a good work place. But I'm worried that my resume will appear to be a red flag as I haven't stayed at and office longer than 1 yr yet. I'm a recent grad. I've had places with empty books, micromanagement from the manager om my treatment plans, and disfunctional corporate offices.

So far I've been at 4 offices (but working part time at 2 places at a time). 1.5 yrs out now.

I want to find a place long term, but the good places the dentists tend to stay for a long time. And I'm worried that they will look at my employment and disregard me. What can I do?

Should I just stick it out in corporate for a year atleast just to prove myself? Or I just need to keep looking?

In due diligence for an office and noted all the computers(5 total) are running 4gb of RAM and are approx 10yrs old. I got frustrated doing chart reviews because of how slow the comps were running. Literally waited for my mouse to catch up to where I needed it to be. I was quoted by a dental IT company 20k for new comps (1.5k ea for microstations) and a server and was wondering if I could it myself. In my previous career I was a CompSci major and did 3years as IT support for a hospital org before moving on to programming. Given my experience i think the quote is roberry but am I missing something? Could I do this myself? Thanks.

I’m an associate dentist (DDS) in California. At a large chain DSO. I have no base pay therefore I have no PTO. Every day I take off, I don’t get paid for it. My patients are simply rescheduled for another day.

I have family in China, and ideally, I’d have at least 3 weeks to see them and do what I need to do there due to the long flight/layover times and jet lag.

I requested 3 weeks for next October (an entire 12 months in advance). My owner dentist practically laughed in my face and said “when I first started out I wouldn’t have even dreamed of taking a day off, bold of you to ask for 3 weeks.” To sum it up, he denied me, and said even two weeks is a stretch. I feel like even though I’m a “doctor,” it’s meaningless and I have no agency over my life. I’m a wife and mother and dentistry is not my whole life. It’s a job and I need time away from it.

Any input? TIA

I am an emergency dentist so see a lot of patients who aren't regular attenders, they often have mental or physical health issues that limit their access and it is quite difficult getting them the care they need safely.

I'm in the UK and we have safeguarding courses we have to update, and something about that training and a patient I saw yesterday is just bothering me.

A lady in her 30s came in a wheelchair, she was pale, dirty, uncared for for many days and smelled strongly of smoke. She was very drowsy also. Her skin was bad. The wheelchair was a pink flimsy thing that when she transferred to the dental chair, it had urine and other stains on it, clear patches of it from where it had been repeatedly stained over time. I don't know if those stains were hers. She didn't seem to have any mobility conditions that needed a wheelchair yet she seemed too weak to walk. Her MH reported fibromyalgia but when asked she didn't seem to give it much importance.

Her trousers were clean but pyjamas and a thick dressing gown are unusual to wear to the dentist here. She was also very underweight which is unusual here.

She attended with two strong looking men who were sullen and quiet and did not answer for her or help her into the chair. She had attended already for a private out of pocket extraction recently (again, unusual in this area) and attended with me for "dry socket" like infection. Her mouth barely had any teeth for someone so young (again, unusual here), many healed extractions and the two or three teeth that were present were broken. Where she was pointing to the extraction area didn't even look like a proper extraction area but she had limited mouth opening so I put it down to that.

At the end I asked who the men were and she didn't know what to say. One of the men grunted "friends". They didn't seem aggressive to her and she didn't seem scared of them.

I don't know what to think. Just something about the way he said "friends" - usually relatives are a bit resentful about bringing family so they'll be present but checked out. Friends have always been supportive - if they're supportive enough to attend, they're supportive enough to help the patient and give a history etc. In our NHS system it's so underfunded that usually some advocacy is needed unfortunately.

It's bothering me. I can't shake the feeling. I'm not sure where to go with this. We have new management and they wouldn't know what safeguarding even is, let alone have an SG lead.

Hi,
I am a new grad. Working in private clinic. They take PPO and DMO . 1-2 days in a week I’m only doing hygiene with couple of fillings. It’s been 2 months , I have only done couple of extraction and RCT. 3-4 crowns per week .

Is it normal?