Lab Log

Study club on zygomatic implant

Fri, 11 May 2012 10:42:00 +0100

Andrew Dawood was asked to present at a study club organised by Dr Sharif Khan in Wakefield, Yorkshire.

Sharif had visited our practice last year with one of his patients, a gentleman who had been wearing a denture for many years, with almost no remaining bone available to support implants. The patient was treated in a day, leaving with a fixed bridge anchored by 4 zygomatic implants.

When Andrew was asked for a title for his presentation, he suggested 'treatment of the atrophic maxilla'. Sharif thought about this briefly, and returned with a better suggestion... 'The end of full dentures".

Sometimes it needs someone from the 'outside' to help you to understand what it is that you do.

Because that is exactly what zygomatic implants means for our patients; the end of full dentures!

London Olympics 2012

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:19:00 +0100

To celebrate the London Olympics 2012 we have decided to add our own tribute to this amazing UK event on our website.

We are very proud to introduce our "running man", proudly carrying the Olympic torch down Wimpole Street and straight into our practice! From here he passes it onto a rather patriotically coloured hot air balloon which will whisk it off to the Olympic Stadium.... well, that's what we are imagining anyway!

We are very proud to be independent, British Dentists and will be supporting team GB all the way.

On your marks, get set ...... Go!

Mumsnet

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:10:00 +0000

Dr Fiona MacKillop has written a wonderful piece for mumsnet.com, advising mums-to-be on how to look after their teeth and gums during pregnancy. Click here to read the full article.

The problems with piercing

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:57:00 +0000

By Dr Fiona MacKillop

The popularity of body piercing has increased over the years. We have a number of patients with piercings in an age range from 17 to 60yrs.

However, lip and tongue piercing carry their own set of problems and these are unlikely to be included in the usual warnings of pain, swelling and infection following a piercing.

I have seen an increasing number of patients with chipped lower teeth caused by the ball of a tongue piercing constantly clicking on them. In addition lip piercing can cause gum recession. The metal piercing presses against the gum around the teeth and can cause advanced localised recession of the gums. Not only is this unsightly, it can lead to gum problems, and ultimately loss of the tooth.

I recently saw a new patient to our practice who had had a tongue piercing for a number of years. There was dramatic bone loss around a lower front tooth as clearly shown by our 3D scanning technology. This problem must have been steadily worsening, undetected for years.

The area was deep cleaned and the patient advised to remove the piercing to prevent further deterioration which would almost certainly lead to loss of the tooth. A compromise was reached with the patient reluctantly agreeing to change the ball from metal to plastic. We await the results with interest. Unfortunately the long-term prognosis is poor!

Something to smile about

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:04:00 +0000

The 2011 British Comedy Awards are on tonight where Britain's top comedians are coming together to celebrate all things funny.

Dawood and Tanner's delicious Tooth Cleansers have been hand-picked for the goodie bags that all the guests will receive. So no matter which awards the comedians are taking away, they'll be taking away some of our special tooth cleansers.

Dawood & Tanner Tooth Cleansers really are keeping British comedians smiling!!

Conjoined Twins Separated

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:11:00 +0100

Challenging surgery needs meticulous planning; and surgery does not get a lot more challenging then the separation of the two conjoined baby girls, Ritag and Ritail Gabora, who were craniopagus – fused at the head. Along with our sister imaging practice, Cavendish Imaging, we were proud to be able to contribute a variety of surgical models of the twins at the various stages of their treatment to improve surgical planning.

3D printing techniques were used to produce physical models that allowed the complex anatomy of the skull, vessels, and brain to be better visualised and understood.

These planning techniques are part of our everyday practice when it comes to treating patients with complex problems, and we were proud to be able to support the charity Facing The Word by providing this expertise.

We wish to congratulate Facing The World and the surgical team led by David Dunaway for their fantastic achievement.

Everyone at Dawood and Tanner wishes the twins a speedy and full recovery.

Dental Internship at Dawood and Tanner

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:11:00 +0100

We were happy to host a dental intern from Augustana College, Illinois in the United States for a summer placement with us. Gabriella Wolski, a Biology major, joined us Dawood and Tanner for 6 weeks to explore the world of UK dentistry at a well-established dental practice in the centre of London's medical district.

During her time with us, she spent time observing different dental specialties within the practice. At the end of her placement, she sent us a lovely thank you note and said she would definitely recommend an internship with Dawood and Tanner. If you are interested in work experience with us, please do contact us.

Smile Please!

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 21:52:00 +0100

We are absolutely delighted that the Sunday Express featured one of our patients and our practice in their 3rd of July Sunday magazine.

Even though we carry out such dental implant treatments all the time, it was a fantastic experience to read such a frank first person account by a patient who has experienced one of our more extensive procedures - zygomatic dental implants.

The article described the incredible transformation that took place when our delightful patient’s failing teeth and denture were replaced with a fixed implant supported bridge. It also describes some of the extraordinary technology that we are able to use to help us to plan and treat our patients.

We were all really moved by the article - visit our press page to see the full article.

We all think she looks incredible!

Dental Study Day

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:09:00 +0100

On Friday 8th July 2011, Dawood and Tanner welcomed 80 of their referring practictioners to The Medical Society of London, Chandos Street, for an intense day of postgraduate education, provided by our Dawood and Tanner Specialists.

Presentations ranged from Dr Sara Johnstone, who provided a refreshing insight into the challenges of Specialist Children's Dentistry, to Dr Shanon Patel, who showed how careful attention to detail could consistently achieve success rates for root canal treatment that were equivalent to dental implant treatments. Dr Fiona MacKillop presented advances in aesthetic gum surgery which reduced trauma and the need for the involvement of a 'donor' site for grafting. Dr Susan Tanner and Dr Andrew Dawood showed a broad range of implant treatments, all with a particular focus on using careful planning and sophisticated technology to provide a beautiful aesthetic result with a minimum of time in surgery.

We were privileged to host Professor Iain Hutchison who spoke on the important role of the general dental practitioner in identifying signs of early oral disease, and referring patients early when suspicious lesons were identified. Professor Hutchison described a new service run by his charity, Saving Faces, which is designed to speed diagnosis and treatment - not only saving time but also potentially saving lives.

Mr Colin Hopper, Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon, spoke of extraordinary new approaches to identifying oral cancer using sophisticated optical technology, using minimally invasive treatments to eliminate disease without the need for subsequent major surgery.

Dr Tom Bereznicki and Dr Mark Kent, both brilliant general dental practitioners who have been working with Dawood and Tanner for many years, presented their beautiful implant restorative work, and their approach to the management of the dental implant patient.

If you are interested in registering for future study days please visit our Education pages for more information.

Dental Phobia

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:28:00 +0100

Many of our patients start out as being dental phobic. I find our experience of this really interesting:

So often people with dental phobia are so very anxious because they had an unpleasant experience or experiences during the course of a past dental appointment - perhaps in childhood.

Some of these patients have the odd problem, but very often treatment is straightforward, and happily dealt with using a kind and gentle approach, sometimes with the help of oral or intravenous sedation to reduce anxiety. To our great satisfaction, very often patients who started out highly phobic, become more and more relaxed, until they need no dental treatment other than standard maintenance, and become just like any other patient in our practice.

The really interesting group of patients are those who have been so anxious in the past that they have allowed their mouths to deteriorate into a really very poor state indeed. Unfortunately, the situation here may often be that all the teeth are unsalvageable, need to be removed, and implants placed.

What is really significant, is that once the teeth have been removed, the phobia seems to disappear too. Our ‘dental phobic’ patients are no longer dental phobic, quite simply because they no longer have any teeth. Working on the implants is very different to working on teeth.

Perhaps this is because what is taking place in the mouth is more like ‘Meccano’ - the usual type of discomfort associated with 'live', sensitive teeth is just not there any more – The experience is totally different, and divorced from the kind of dentistry that has been experienced in the past.

I have not yet come across an implant phobic…