Tips for Anterior Composites

Episode #376 with Dr. Marcos Vargas

Patients are aesthetically driven more than ever. But aesthetics is beyond just the tooth itself or what the patient wants. And to share tips on how to have these discussions with patients, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Marcos Vargas, a professor in the Department of Family Dentistry at the University of Iowa. With his advice, you will think differently about aesthetics and anterior composites, and learn why composites are vital to your practice. To learn how to make your patients happy with your composites, listen to Episode 376 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Aesthetics is not just about the tooth itself, but the entire face.

Never give the mirror to the patient! And keep it at your arm’s length away.

The “perfect” smile is different for each person.

Avoid patients who you can't make happy with your dentistry.

If you want to learn aesthetics, learn dental anatomy.

Quotes:

“Anterior composites are one of those materials [that], with the proper techniques, [can] really save tooth structure. It’s just so conservative, the nature of it. Preparations are minimal, if needed. I think dentistry is moving in that direction, conservative dentistry. We’ve been moving for a while, and that movement has accelerated. So, I think everybody needs to know composites. When you tell your patient you are going to do something very conservative, they immediately perk up and say, ‘Oh, I like that,’ because probably from their physicians and medicine care, since I'm getting more conservative — like surgeries are getting much smaller, getting into robotics and things like that, they know that minimally invasive is better. So, that trend is catching up in dentistry too.” (5:38—6:29)

“Patients know. It’s like, ‘Oh, conservative. You want to save my tooth or my tooth structure. That's great.’ So, I think nowadays, we should be looking into providing that care to our patients, minimally invasive care, preventive care, in all aspects.” (6:30—6:49)

“Always think about the face, the smile, and then the teeth from the outside to the inside. The face frames the lips, the lips frame the teeth, and the teeth are framed not only by the lips but also by the gingiva.” (9:14—9:28)

“In the past, we looked at just the teeth. We just looked at the teeth, and the rest wasn't that important. But patients come to you for aesthetics. And aesthetics is not on the tooth itself, it’s in how all the teeth fit together, the centrals, the laterals, the canines, the premolars and the buccal arch, how they fit together, where they are with respect to the gingiva, how the gingiva comes down, how the lips move when the patient smiles, how they show it, how their lips move and show the teeth, and how that smile fits on the face. So, that's how I think somebody that is new to dentistry needs to look into it, from the face in.” (9:35—10:15)

“Usually, a patient will come with a very specific — aesthetics can be small, it can be big. So, let me give you a couple of scenarios. One is when the patient knows very specifically what they do not like. Example, ‘I do not like the space between my front two teeth.’ Or somebody can say, ‘I don't like my smile.’ So, very different. And the diastema between the two front teeth is very specific. So, they already know exactly what they're coming for to the office. And on the other side, you have the people that have these, ‘I want to have a better smile.’ So, it’s a very different approach that I have.” (11:03—11:48)

“Usually, the patients that have a small diastema, I would probably grab a little composite, put it in the mouth, just muck it up, three-second cure, give them the mirror. Now, let's do a little parentheses, because I think that's a tip that I want to give you...