Dr Kostas Karagiannopoulos is an experienced specialist prosthodontist, academic and researcher. He works in specialist practice in St. Albans and is co-founder of Prosthoworks providing advanced prosthodontic education in contemporary prosthodontic principles and techniques.
In a new GC Podcast interview, Kostas put the focus squarely on the management of tooth wear, not just for prosthodontic specialists, but importantly, for general dentists as well. As Kostas says, “a tooth wear case is not exclusively to be treated at specialist level; with the right skills and conversation with patients, most tooth wear cases can be managed in general practice.”
Listen to the podcast here:
Kostas kicks off the interview with his experience of the tooth wear referrals he sees in his specialist practice, and what he says may surprise you. Not only is the prevalence of tooth wear increasing as people are living longer and retaining their natural teeth for longer, but it’s also affecting people from much younger age groups, especially those in their 20s and 30s.
Kostas concludes that there’s a need to create more awareness of the problem of tooth wear, highlighting the implications and benefits of treatment, as well as aftercare and maintenance.
What’s in store
In this 24-minute interview, Kostas talks in depth about the main causes of tooth wear, how the perception of tooth wear has changed over recent years, and about his strategies for diagnosis and treatment using the latest materials and techniques.
Highlights include:
- The questions to ask patients who present with tooth wear, such as finding out more about their diet, whether they notice any gastric reflux, and, because of the links to bruxism and sleep apnoea, their quality of sleep or if they snore.
- Why the first line of the management of tooth wear is not cutting the teeth down aggressively for crowns but to replace lost volume by using adhesive techniques.
- Why Kostas is such an advocate of the Injection Moulding Technique to restore tooth wear and why he believes G-ænial Universal Injectable high-strength restorative flowable composite has become the gold standard for injection moulding.
- Why, in certain cases, when there’s a limit to what universal composites can do, in these cases Kostas and his lab technician turn to GC’s Initial LiSi Block and Initial LiSi Press as restorative chairside solutions.
- How to manage sensitivity in tooth wear cases and why patients love using GC’s Tooth Mousse.
- Details about the courses available from Prosthoworks to learn more about injection moulding and treating tooth wear “in an additive way, in a minimalistic way, in a non-aggressive way, in practice.”
Find out more about GC’s solutions for tooth wear here.
You can also find this episode on Spotify:
