We just installed a new digital Panoramic Cepholometric X-Ray Machine in the Huntsville office. The radiographs are outstanding! We had the Planmeca film based machine which was adapted to use plates which were scanned into the computer. Now we have a new direct to digital system. These things last a long time and I suspect this will last for most of my career. We will have one like this in the Madison office when we get into the new office in April. The ceph part kind of looks like a star wars storm trooper helmet.
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Dear Dr. Brandon;
I enjoy reading your blog from time to time. As a new pediatric dentist about to open my office I wanted to ask you based on the fact that you recently acquired a digital pano/ceph what kind of digital system do you use for intra-oral x-rays (scan-x or sensors)? and what you you believe its advantages and disadvantages have been?
For bitewings and pa's we use a scan-X. I have known some pedo offices to use sensors successfully, but we did not wand kids to bite through expensive sensors, gag on them, but also it was an ease of conversion and training issue in addition to cost. See my other post sometime back on this.
Hi Dr.Dean,
I apologize for posting off-topic here.I tried posting under the relevant topics in the teeth turning dark/enamel hypoplasia threads.But,comments are disabled for those.
I would really be thankful if you can answer some of my concerns here.
My 17 month old son was diagnosed with enamel hypoplasia about 2 months back(he still breast feeds during the night and we are trying to reduce/wean him from it).He had a small brown patch on one of his upper teeth and the teeth was a bit brittle.3 days back,he bumped his face against a furniture(was a pretty minor hit) and 3 of his upper teeth seemed to break off in parts.
He doesn't seem to feel any pain except when we touch the damaged teeth.He is able to eat soft foods without any problems.
I took him to a dentist to check the damage and she recommended that we go see a periodontist.The periodontist told that we might need to do baby root canal for 3 of his teeth(since the pulp is exposed.She didn't tell us about the extent to which the pulp is exposed either).She said it takes about 10 minutes to do the procedure and we'll have to go for 2 sittings.Since I was concerned that it might be difficult to hold him still(and also skeptical since it took her just 2 mins to immediately talk about the root canal for all 3 teeth while the other dentist talked about protection being needed only for one of those teeth),I went for a 2nd opinion.
The 2nd dentist told us that only one of his teeth might require treatment.He also didnt want to press him too much on the 1st day,gave us a course of antibiotics for the next 4 days.He asked us to come back after the course is done for further examination.
I also spoke to a relative of mine who's a dentist(long distance) and he told me to wait for a bit longer.He told me that there is a possibility that it might get (re)absorbed by itself.We are also traveling to our hometown in 3 weeks.So,we will be able to check with him once we get there.
My questions are -
Is it ok to do baby root canal on a 17 month old kid?
Is it ok to wait it out for a bit longer(3 weeks or longer)?
I'll be really thankful if you can answer some of my concerns.I am really anxious.
Regards,
Umapathy
I cannot really give precise answers. I might say that most things can wait a few weeks. So long as you are getting advice from a pediatric dentist, I think you will be fine. By the way the term, "baby root canal" can mean different things. Sometimes that is the word used for pulpotomy, which is not technically a root canal. I do lots of pulpotomies, but very few root canals. Often when baby teeth get too badly decayed or damaged, they need to be removed. Hopefully they can answer your comcerns more specifically, but you are also welcome to browse the other posts I have here.
Thanks Dr.Dean.
Dear Dr. Brandon,
My 6 year old daughter recently had a standard x-ray for her check up. Our dentist noticed that her 6 year molars had no roots. He had never seen this and neither had his friend who is an oral surgeon. Have you ever seen this and if so what could be the cause? Is it serious?
Thanks very much
No roots, Hmm, I'll have to think on that one. It is unusual. Dentinal dysplasia comes to mind. That's where the dentin (inner layer and most of the tooth and all of the root) do not form properly. Though do not go on what I say.
I don't know, but I have seen people with several missing permanent teeth--(see my post on that one) somewhere here.
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