Kevin's Corner

1. Take a bite – Just in case it can’t be hand articulated. Often old partials are so worn, they don’t perfectly occlude. A thin blue mousse bite will usually suffice. Not a glob of material. And not putty. Make sure teeth
contact teeth.

2. Opposing model – The lab might not need this if it’s a broken partial. But then again, they might! If they are adding or replacing a tooth, you’ll never be sorry for sending them this information because there will be that
opposing occlusal surface to work with. Without it, the technician is throwing darts at an invisible dart board.

3. A shade – If a shade doesn’t come with the repair, the best that can be done is to match those existing denture teeth on the old partial. They may not match the remaining dentition.

4. A pickup impression – This is the most important part! That partial must fit on something! If you provide just a naked impression of the arch, there is no way that partial frame will fit on a stone model. Soft tissue differences as well as undercuts will prevent that framework from seating, resulting in that dreaded call back. Pull that partial so it can be poured up within the new impression. Take this impression in a medium bodied PVS material! You’ll never be upset that you invested a little more into a stable material to hold that partial in place. An alginate may rip and tear as you pull it from the mouth, and then you have to deal with properly re-seating the partial back into a torn, possibly inaccurate impression. A heavy bodied material can displace the soft tissue and cause the repair not to fit.

Griffin Dental Lab is excited to offer a new option for locator implant retained prosthesis that utilizes locator abutments! With over four million patients, Zest Locator is the most successful edentulous, full-arch solution. Using the same tried and true locator abutments, we can now offer your practice Removable or Fixed dental prosthesis. These offer the same benefits of a screw retained prosthesis, but at a more affordable cost. New AND Existing patients can take advantage of Locator Fixed.

Patients with a minimum of four locator abutments can utilize Locator Fixed Housing System. The proprietary inserts secure the prosthesis in place, and the patient will not be able to remove it. It has the enhanced strength and security of a screw retained prothesis.

BENEFITS OF LOCATOR FIXED
• Reduce chair time & procedure cost.
• Reduce need for bone reduction.
• More aesthetic, no holes in appliances to color match/fill in.
• Less acrylic than standard locator case.
• Thousands of dollars cheaper than screw retained so more can afford.

Locator Fixed is an affordable answer to restoring your edentulous patients’ self-confidence, self-esteem, and quality of life. Please feel free to contact us at Griffin Dental Lab, as we are working closely with Zest Dental Solutions, for more information on implant solutions!

Having a patient that needs a reline can either be a very satisfying experience, or a complete nightmare when not properly handled chairside. Following the procedures listed below will make your relines more predictable and successful.

1. Check for proper occlusion before reline impression. Also, have patient reproduce several times (this will be important in future steps).
2. If patient has a full set of dentures and relining both, focus on only one at a time. Begin with the upper first, due to no lower jaw movement, to secure the proper bite.
3. Relieve inside of denture to make space for the impression material. If the patient is using denture adhesive, please clean denture tissue surface as well as the patient’s gums.
4. It’s important to apply VPS tray adhesive to the inside of the denture so it will secure the impression material to the base.
5. Fill denture with enough material to ensure coverage of intaglio surface and all borders with only one VPS material (light or medium body is recommended). Heavy body tends to depress and displace the soft tissue, which when relined, causes sore spots and ill-fitting dentures with little to no suction. Using two different materials can cause discrepancies and an inaccurate impression where the two materials come together, as well as a difference in setup times.
6. Have the patient close and hold steady, once occluded.
7. Ensure proper bite has been maintained. If not, the patient’s denture will be off in final delivery.
8. Border mold the impression by massaging the external facial tissues.
9. Evaluate reline impressions for any flaws to ensure all tissue surfaces and borders are captured.
10. Properly package and send over to us (Griffin Dental Lab).

Hopefully this will help with your future relines. Please contact us with any questions.

Dental implants have become routine treatments for many dental practices. It’s therefore beneficial to familiarize oneself with the variety of implant systems offered today to match what’s best for each case. The dentist should be involved in treatment planning and selecting the implant system to design the patient’s prosthesis. If recommendations are needed, the oral surgeon can be consulted. Or our technicians here at Griffin Dental Lab, who see a high volume of implant restorations, can help ensure a higher success rate.

When ready to proceed, we recommend taking preliminary impressions with just healing caps. Then, send it to us for a custom tray that will be blocked out for the implant abutments and housings. Using Medium Polyvinyl Siloxane (PVS) with the custom tray, the implant housings can now be accurately captured.

This allows the lab to pour an implant cast, with implant analogs, to produce an exact duplicate of the patient’s mouth. It will show the implant placements, the height/angle of the abutments, plus the path of insertion. These factors all contribute to a properly fitted prosthesis. This step should be done on ALL removeable implant cases, even if the doctor will be capturing the housings chairside in acrylic.

Plan On the Following Chairside Appointments:
1. Custom Tray
2. Bite Rims
3. Teeth Try-In
4. Delivery of Finished Prosthesis

We hope this helps in the future with your removeable implant cases! Feel free to contact us here at Griffin Dental Lab for your next case. Please call us for pricing! Our estimates are good for thirty days.

As technology advances for modern dental practices, intraoral scanners have become a crucial component in the overall improvement of the patient experience. Clinicians, once trained, can complete a full-mouth scan in 3-5
minutes! The high resolution, 3D images are available immediately, making it much easier to engage with the patient about general oral health, education, and treatment plans, if needed. The reduced chair-time also allows you to see more patients overall.

These scanned images, or digital impressions, can be shared with us for high quality restorations/fabrications. Once complete, the images are stored and can be easily retrieved. If the patient loses the appliance or needs a second one for any reason, we can begin the process quickly without any extra visits from the patient!

Also, intraoral scanners provide much greater accuracy over standard impressions. There are no material costs (i.e., impression materials and lab stone).

In conclusion, these advantages will lead to a greater patient experience and quality of care. Griffin Dental Lab believes in this technology, and we look forward to strengthening our relationships with all our doctors and offices. If you would like more information, or a demonstration of the intraoral
scanner, we would love to coordinate that for you!

Griffin Dental Lab is excited to announce we have teamed up with two of the industry’s leading 3D Printing services: Carbon and Keystone!

What does this mean for you? We can now fabricate nightguards from digital scans as well as actual models! So, if your office can digitally scan the patient’s impressions, you can send the file directly to us for fabrication. You’ll be able to send your .STL files via Medit, 3Shape Communicate, or email. Itero will be coming soon. Also, with our digital storage service, lost or damaged appliances can be remade easily without any rework or patient visits!

Combining Carbon 3D Printing and Keysplint Soft together, we feel offers the ultimate nightguard. This provides optimum fit and patient comfort. This adds a stronger protection against bruxism and more
fracture resistance than standard splint material. As a bonus, Keysplint Soft can be warmed in water for easy placement and minimum chairside adjustment. This saves valuable time for the doctors and their staff.

We are eager to begin this new undertaking with all of you! As always, with any question or comment, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 214.378.7300. Additional 3D digital scanned appliances are forthcoming soon.

Accurate impressions and choosing the proper impression materials are critical and are the essential foundation in a successful restoration. With a wide variety of materials available the two most commonly used in offices today are alginate and polyvinyl siloxane (PVS). Both can produce highly detailed impressions when properly used. Alginate is generally used for preliminary impressions and immediate cases where tissue shape will change. For best results staff should pour immediately. Polyvinyl siloxane is used mostly for final impressions, relines, and picking up housings for implant restorations.

For removable restorations using a light or medium viscosity and only using a single material is recommended. Heavy body viscosity has a tendency to depress any soft tissue causing sore spots, rocking, and lack of suction.

For best results:
The Maxillary impressions should include frenum attachments, full palette, hamular notches, and buccal and labial vestibules.

The Mandibular impression should include oblique ridges, the retromolar pads, frenum attachments, and the buccal and labial vestibules.