1. This is a 5-day program – Monday through Friday

2. The total cost is $3000, including the use of instruments, typodonts and handpieces.  A $250 charge will be made for the Tooth/Bur kit which organizes expendible items needed for the course.

You may find useful supplemental material for this program at:

web-dds.org – chapters on oral structures at least.

This website under Articles and Restorative Dentistry Textbook Volumes

3. Udemy courses under D. Michael Duggan – for learning methods, preparation evaluation and Seeing what you Need to See.

Day 1:

a. Perspective on the Head and all it involves.

The way the Head Should be:

• Associated biological, mechanical and auditory mechanisms.
• Sub systems – bone, periodontium, teeth. The compound fracture we always have in our mouth – the most contaminated part of our bodies.
• Focus on teeth – design, function and locations. Mechanical and esthetic.
• TALK about teeth and parts – terminology and nomenclature.

The Way Things Are:

Pathology – gingiva, teeth – function – bite, esthetics

What is OUR job:

• Restore to health and function
• Restore by patching, covering or replacing.
  • Direct and indirect restorations.
  • Direct – prepare and fill with chosen material. Choices?
• Indirect – prepare and cement on/in something made outside
• FORM of preparation and terminology – 3D visualization for:

Design ….. Execution ….Evaluation

b. The act of Cutting into teeth – burs, handpieces, magnifiers, lights, instruments

• Woodworking in miniature? Hardly … you hold everything in your hand!
• But – things you cut are far smaller than what you have controlling the cut – your hands!
• Direction you cut – and what you NEED to SEE!

c. Important questions – did you:

• Accomplish goal to eliminate pathology?
• Produce a preparation that allows good restoration?
• Make a restoration that will last its expected lifetime?
• Avoid damaging anything else?
• Accommodate esthetic needs of the patient?
• Work within the budget and financial constraints of the patient?

d. Actual CUTTING of simulated teeth in simulated jaws – our goals:

(1) – Stepwise strategy for accomplishing work

(2) – Complete each step and know you did well

(3) – Know that completion of each step makes the next one easier and faster.

(4) – Know what you MUST see and be SURE you do!

We will do class I preparations on the occlusal surface and class II preparations on the occlusal and the proximal (contacting side of the tooth). We will do enough work this first day to give you some sense of what it is like to actually work in a patient, with a specific goal in mind, and a reasonable strategy for proceeding.

Day 2:

Class II Practice preparations

All four quadrants

Molars and premolars

Learning that to SEE what needs to be seen for every step of a preparation requires different positions of the body and patient, depending on which quadrant of the mouth we work in. Our goal is that the adjustments and transitions between positions become natural and automatic.

Day 3:

Class II Restorations with amalgam and composite

We will FILL several prepared teeth with common restorative materials, with the intent of recreating the anatomy of the original tooth AND that the restoration has a good chance of lasting in the mouth as long as it SHOULD. For amalgam 60 years minimum, and for composite 15 years minimum.

Day 4:

Crown Preparations – anterior – esthetic concerns

Ceramometal crowns preparations and all ceramic crown preparations

The goal is to prepare a tooth so that a crown CAN be made that will restore the original contours and appearance of the tooth, so it will be indistinguishable from the other teeth. AND we need to make sure that the restoration CAN be made that will last in the mouth for a long time before requiring replacement for any reason.

Day 5:

Posterior Crown preparations – occlusal reduction

The goal is to learn how to prepare a posterior tooth so that a crown CAN be made that will serve the patient well and for a long time.

Graded Practical exam

The exam will consist of three procedures that are graded according to the only standard that means anything: is there anything wrong that will compromise the longevity of the restoration – so that it will need to be replaced in the patient’s mouth earlier than its expected lifetime? If the lifetime is compromised, it is a failing preparation.

Course dates: We will schedule around semester breaks for local universities by request, Winter holidays and Summer breaks when our calendar permits.