⬇️ Below the Gumline
The truth is, very few patients will remember the margins of your crown or the anatomy of your composite ten years from now — but they will remember how you made them feel. Dentistry has a funny way of convincing us that our legacy lives in radiographs and restorations, when in reality it lives in trust, empathy, and the relationships we build chairside. Procedures matter, but people matter more. If you want a practice that lasts longer than your hands do, invest as much in relationships as you do in clinical excellence. The question worth asking this week: Who are you building with — and who are you building for?
🔥 High-Speed Chatter
🔥 Arson at an ortho office — because apparently even dental practices aren’t safe from true crime energy anymore. Read More >
🎙️ Are dentists quietly dropping insurance plans? A candid podcast that confirms what many of you are already thinking. Read More >
🚨 Fake Atlanta dentist scammed veneer patients out of $4M — another reminder that reputation matters more than Instagram followers. Read More >
🏛️ ADA pushes for dental benefit transparency in Senate review — long overdue, but don’t hold your breath. Read More >
⚖️ New trial date set for dentist accused of covering up a murder — dentistry somehow finds itself in the strangest headlines. Read More >
🦷 Align launches new Invisalign mandibular advancement system — ortho tech continues its relentless march forward. Read More >
🤖 Machine learning reveals caries variability — AI doesn’t replace dentists, but it’s definitely studying us. Read More >
💸 Average Medicaid adult dental reimbursement by state — spoiler: it’s worse than you think. Read More >
💊 SSRIs and the bruxism puzzle — helpful clinical insight for a complaint you hear more often than you chart. Read More >
🚔 Man gets probation for botched dental procedures — enforcement exists… occasionally. Read More >
🔐 ADA urges HHS to withdraw proposed HIPAA cybersecurity rule — because more regulation is always “the answer,” right? Read More >
🧪 The Research Says
⁇ The Question: Can you actually bond to sclerotic dentin?
📚 The Evidence:
Multiple systematic reviews and clinical trials show that bond strength to sclerotic dentin is significantly lower than to normal dentin when standard protocols are used. Sclerotic dentin is hypermineralized, acid-resistant, and has occluded tubules — meaning mild self-etch adhesives often fail to penetrate the surface. Studies consistently demonstrate that mechanical roughening plus phosphoric acid etching dramatically improves bond strength and long-term retention.
Mechanical surface roughening reduced restoration failure risk by nearly 50% and increased microtensile bond strength by over 200% compared to untouched sclerotic dentin.
✅ The Answer:
Yes — you can bond to sclerotic dentin, but not passively. Universal adhesives alone are not magic. Success depends on actively removing the hypermineralized surface and using an etch-and-rinse strategy.
The Application
Tomorrow in practice, stop bonding to shiny dentin. Lightly roughen the lesion with a fine diamond or air abrasion, etch with phosphoric acid, scrub in your adhesive aggressively, and evaporate the solvent completely. Treat sclerotic dentin as a unique substrate — not as “normal dentin with an attitude.”
Read the key studies here >
💰 Business Bites
Clean books now so next year doesn’t hurt
If you wait until tax season to clean up your bookkeeping, you’re already too late. Now is the moment to fix categories, reconcile accounts, and understand where your money actually went in 2025 so you can proactively plan a better 2026. Good tax strategy starts with clean data — not panic emails to your CPA.
🤯 Productive Pearls
Stop cementing implants if you don’t have to
Switching to screw-retained implant restorations saves time, eliminates cement-related peri-implantitis risks, and simplifies long-term maintenance. Fewer headaches, fewer complications, and faster appointments — it’s an easier way to practice modern implant dentistry.
💉 Mental Anesthesia
🤝 Got a Question? Got a Friend? 🤝
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