Protrusive Dental Podcast

Beyond Scaling: How to Get More From Your Ultrasonic Do you really need your ultrasonic on 100% ? (Probably not — and it may be costing you precision.) Which part of the tip should actually be touching the tooth — and is that why the hygienists keep complaining about blunt tips? Could the scaler tip you already own refine your margins, find a calcified canal and cut gutta-percha like a hot knife t...

Would you dare promise patients a refund if they felt any pain? Why do so many of us still skip topical — and what does that say to the patient in the chair? How do you take the sting out of an inferior alveolar nerve block , a palatal, or a screaming hot pulp? And when the lip is numb but the patient still feels it — what went wrong before you even picked up the handpiece? My guest is Dr Nigel Ke...

When a filling doesn’t go to plan, how many times do you replay it on the drive home? Have you fallen out of love with dentistry — or just with the way you’re experiencing it right now? Why do the habits that could help your headspace get forgotten by Wednesday ? And when did you last ask yourself: have my thoughts been serving me today? This is an Interference Cast episode — no margins, no bondin...

How do you explain everything that could go wrong with a root canal — without the patient walking out? Why does a signed consent form protect you far less than you think? What should you say in the exact moment after you tell a patient the fee? And which single word is quietly sabotaging every future conversation you have about maintenance? This is Part 2 of our communication masterclass with Dr Z...

NEW: 15% OFF FIGS Worldwide 🌍 - use code FIGSPD15 at wearfigs.com What do you say when a patient comes in wanting one tooth fixed, but you can see eight more heading the same way? How do you tell a patient who has had a scale and polish every six months for twenty years that they now need something deeper without making it sound like you’re suddenly trying to sell them more dentistry? Is there a...

Ever wondered what it’s really like to study dentistry abroad? How different is it to train in Bulgaria, Slovakia, or Valencia compared to the UK? And what happens when it’s time to come back home — can you easily register with the GDC and start practicing? Dr. Hugo Medd joins Jaz for an honest and insightful conversation about taking the path less traveled — studying dentistry in Bulgaria after n...

Have you ever removed plaque using a scaler or ‘air-polisher’ and notice that the demineralised enamel flaked away? Scaling and polishing is a routine part of preventive dental care — but could some of our traditional cleaning methods be doing more than we realise? A whitening specialist who works without a drill, scaler or air polisher argues that some approaches to cleaning may affect the enamel...

Full mouth reconstruction — is the aim really the flawless before-and-after you scroll past on Instagram, or is that a trap? How do you actually know you’re ready to step up from single teeth to a whole mouth? And when your comprehensive treatment plan keeps getting declined — psychologically, financially — is that the patient’s problem, or yours? This one is a “your questions answered” episode: t...

When you walk through the door after work, are you actually present or are you still running the day’s to-do list in your head? Is there ever a “good” time to have a baby in the middle of specialist training and how do you fund it? How do the best dentist-parents you know protect time with their kids without their careers stalling? And can technology actually give you hours back — or is that just...

Complete Dentures That Actually Work: Impressions, CR & Adaptation You don’t have to suck at complete dentures — there’s a science to them, and an art you gather with experience. Why do complete dentures feel so unpredictable — when a crown prep or an endo doesn’t? What’s the number-one impression mistake dentists make — and the tissue-conditioning step most of us skip? And when a new denture...

Holistic, biological, functional — is there actually a difference, or is it all just marketing? Are root canals really dangerous — or is that just what the algorithm keeps showing your patients? When a patient wants their sound fillings out, do you test, reassure, or drill? And how do you bring sleep, diet and blood tests into a dental appointment without it stopping being dentistry? This episode...

Injection moulding is meant to save you time. Too often it hands you a mouthful of flash and a cleanup that swallows the chair time you thought you were saving. Dr Sandra Hulac is a Clinical Instructor at the Kois Center in Seattle and an Accredited Fellow of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. She uses full-mouth injection moulding to road-test occlusions and stabilise breaking-down denti...

Your patient is nine years old. One first permanent molar is crumbling — the others look fine . Does it stay, or does it go? Is that broken-down first permanent molar really down to poor brushing — or is it Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation ? When is the right time to take a first permanent molar out — and how do you read it off the X-ray? And how do you tell a parent their child needs an adult too...

Patient has patchy white spots after braces — do you really whiten, or will that just make the spots stand out more? Tetracycline staining darker than your darkest shade tab — is bleaching even worth attempting, or is it veneers by default? A single dark, root-filled central incisor — can you fix it without picking up a drill at all? And how do you talk a patient through weeks, shades and cost so...

What if the tray is the reason your whitening results are inconsistent? Why would a dentist who owns a whitening lab — and holds four patents on making bleaching trays — tell you to skip the tray? Trayless whitening does not mean strips. It means the patient puts in a retractor and paints the gel directly onto the teeth, twice a day, for half an hour. No impression, no lab bill, no two-week wait,...

Just qualified — so why does it feel like the learning is only just beginning ? What should you actually focus on in year one: the flawless dentistry on your feed, or something far less glamorous? How do you tell a patient their nerve might die — without it sounding like YOUR fault? And when a patient says “just do whatever you think” — what do you say back? This is the conversation every new dent...

Your patient brushes well, avoids sweets — and still keeps getting decay. What if the answer isn’t in their mouth at all? What if two inexpensive finger-prick tests told you more about a patient’s gum disease and implant prognosis than anything on the radiograph? And here’s the uncomfortable one: if the science is this clear, is not checking starting to look like a medico-legal risk? Especially fo...

Filling, stainless steel crown, pulpotomy or extraction — how do you actually decide on a deciduous tooth? Why is the lower first primary molar the one that always seems to flare up? When should you reach for silver diamine fluoride instead of the drill — and when is a child’s cooperation telling you to change the plan entirely? And how do you actually do a pulpotomy, step by step, without it blow...

Filling, stainless steel crown, pulpotomy or extraction — how do you actually decide on a deciduous tooth? Why is the lower first primary molar the one that always seems to flare up? When should you reach for silver diamine fluoride instead of the drill — and when is a child’s cooperation telling you to change the plan entirely? And how do you actually do a pulpotomy, step by step, without it blow...

How good is your consent for orthodontics — really? More adults are having ortho, and more GDPs are providing it. So which risks should you be discussing with every single patient — and which ones depend on the person in the chair? When a case is heading for a big overjet or a tricky rotation, is that a conversation you have at the start, or one you scramble to explain halfway through? And what ac...

How good is your consent for orthodontics — really? More adults are having ortho, and more GDPs are providing it. So which risks should you be discussing with every single patient — and which ones depend on the person in the chair? When a case is heading for a big overjet or a tricky rotation, is that a conversation you have at the start, or one you scramble to explain halfway through? And what ac...

Ever fancied teaching dental students part time… but no real idea how you’d actually get in? Are you the kind of person teaching would energise — or quietly drain ? Is a PGCert in dental education actually worth it , or just wishy-washy theory? And the honest question nobody asks out loud: does it pay anything? This is an Interference Cast — the non-clinical arm of the podcast — with Dr Rima Hussa...

Ever fancied teaching dental students part time… but no real idea how you’d actually get in? Are you the kind of person teaching would energise — or quietly drain ? Is a PGCert in dental education actually worth it , or just wishy-washy theory? And the honest question nobody asks out loud: does it pay anything? This is an Interference Cast — the non-clinical arm of the podcast — with Dr Rima Hussa...

Sleep, Airway and Mouth Breathing: An ENT’s Guide for Dentists Could a “normal” sleep study still be missing your patient’s airway problem? Why do women and children with real symptoms keep scoring “mild” ? Should a mouth-breathing child see a myofunctional therapist — or an ENT first ? And which four questions screen a child for sleep problems in under a minute? The roof of the mouth is the floor...

Sleep, Airway and Mouth Breathing: An ENT’s Guide for Dentists Could a “normal” sleep study still be missing your patient’s airway problem? Why do women and children with real symptoms keep scoring “mild” ? Should a mouth-breathing child see a myofunctional therapist — or an ENT first ? And which four questions screen a child for sleep problems in under a minute? The roof of the mouth is the floor...