Classical dentistry is dealing with defects, caries, demineralized areas, discolorations or broken teeth after trauma. In such indications we are restoring damaged, infected or missing areas of the tooth structure. In order to achieve immediate success and long term survival we need to respect several biological rules and follow certain clinical protocols. Restoring the function was the priority and aesthetics was secondary. If at the end of the treatment the restoration looked nice it was always welcome. The above description fits well to dentistry during the last 30 years. But these ideas are not longer acceptable for many of our patients. In our competitive modern society it is considered a disadvantage to have “not nice looking” teeth. This means that whenever something happen to them (caries, trauma, insufficient form, proportions or alignment) the situation needs to be fixed… and in an aesthetic way! As a simple example, many patients have old anterior composites with an insufficient appearance and a diastema for years, they come to you for having them changed plus the diastema closed, and suddenly they do not accept anything but a perfect invisible filling! Others come for orthodontic treatment with too small teeth for their jaws, and after the orthodontic treatment is ready they are not happy with just nicely align teeth with spaces between them, they also want to have them closed! Fortunately the improvements in techniques and materials have been so great during the last years that we are in a comfortable position to offer the patients answers and predictable results for such cases.

The course will focus in how to deal with diastemas in a simple, minimal invasive and predictable way. It will also give guidelines regarding the choice of materials. It will present a simplified layering concept and discuss the limitations of them. The aesthetic potential of ceramics and composites will be shown, the advantages of new materials and last improvements in their optical properties will be described. It will be based on many fully documented clinical cases in HD quality, with step by step procedures, showing what is really possible to achieve and the limitations of novel techniques.

Course description

The course will cover the necessary knowledge to know what to do when spaces are present in the anterior region. First, the participants will evaluate the model and plan how to prepare, if necessary. Afterwards they will prepare the teeth and then they will have to restore them one by one keeping the proportions. Several techniques for closing diastemas will be shown. The pulling technique, the reverse pulling technique, the FEM technique and the Wing technique will be explained in detail. The Hands-on will finish with the demonstration of finishing and polishing.

All the steps will be shown by the instructor with an HD camera with high magnification for explanation of all the details.

Learning objectives

The participants will learn:

• Discuss how to manage the proportions
• Discuss how to diagnose a case with Bolton discrepancy
• Explain how to layer composites to close diastemas
• Demonstrate how to make direct veneers
• Explain different novel techniques for the anterior region
• Explain how to finish composites when diastemas were closed.

Course Schedule

Day 1

Day 2