Advanced diagnostics
Advanced diagnostics
Our Master Diagnostic Model® (MDM) is a uniquely effective case planning and communication tool that improves the accuracy, clarity and impact of your diagnostic presentation.
When a doctor, laboratory and patient work together on a case, they must communicate many ideas with each other. This process has always been known as "pre-treatment planning." But now, using a Master Diagnostic Model® from Valley Dental Arts, it has literally become "master planning."
MDM® -- the Master Plan and Patient Consult
By using a Master Diagnostic Model® in patient case presentations, you can show in true-to-life color how the restoration will enhance your patient's smile. Patients can see for themselves what their smile will look like before they commit to treatment. Many doctors say that MDMs® are even more powerful than computer-enhanced photographs because they are three-dimensional. Patients can hold their future smile in their own hands and look at it from every angle. In almost all instances, they proceed with the proposed treatment.
How do we achieve this? You supply quality color patient photographs (intraoral and full face), shade guide selections, and a comprehensive case worksheet to Valley Dental Arts. We then create an MDM® that combines the characterization, shade, shape, and tissue color into a masterpiece.
MDM® helps explain the occlusional value of a restoration
Most patients see how beautiful a restored smile looks on the surface. But they often can have trouble understanding that their occlusion plays a major role in how their smile fits together. With an MDM®, you can show how a smile redesign can be made more successful aesthetically if additional teeth or processes are involved in the transformation. That helps the patient fully appreciate both the aesthetic and functional value of your proposed treatment.
When you take a facebow and supplies measurements and detailed models that include all tooth and gum structure to Valley Dental Arts, our specially trained artisans use their expertise to bio-engineer bone and tissue enhancements, as well as occlusion and optimal implant placement into the MDM®. In an implant case, additional implants may be needed, or a combination case may be the best solution. Whatever your patient's requirements, using the MDM® fosters precise communication and better results.
Achieve a complete pre-treatment master plan
From a medico-legal standpoint, you can achieve a proper and complete pre-treatment master plan with an MDM®. This is especially important when your patient is considering a complex treatment plan involving implants, precision removable appliances, or crown and bridge.
MDM® -- Preparation Guides
Depending on the case, we may deliver a Master Diagnostic Model® with a prep model and/or a vacuum stent.
For a multi-unit veneer, or veneer and crown case, we would include a prep model. You can refer to this model, which is duplicated from the one we prepped in the lab to construct the MDM®, for measurements and characteristics of the preparation work you need to insure a viable restoration.
At this time, our dental artisans may recommend brand name porcelains that are more applicable to your patient's tooth structure. Many of these materials require minimum margin depths or specific angulation, made evident on the MDM®.
You can use the MDM® as a preparation guide to determine the need for bone and tissue grafts. By using a periodontal probe, you can measure the depth from the MDM® tissue surface to existing bone and tissue.
For implant and combination cases we will include a vacuum stent and sometimes a prep model. By applying the vacuum stent filled with provisional mixture to your patient, you can produce a three-dimensional representation of needed bone and tissue.
You can also use the vacuum stent as a surgical stent to determine proper placement and angulation of implants. The pre-treatment planning phase of implant treatment is the most important phase. All too often, routine steps are overlooked or ignored before beginning the case. This can lead to a compromised surgical and/or prosthetic result. We devised the MDM® technique to ensure a complete understanding of the case - from the surgical perspective, the restorative perspective, the lab's perspective, and the patient's perspective.
MDM®- Provisionals-Aesthetics Plus
Your patient can walk into the office for extensive prep work and walk out with the smile she wanted. We can accomplish this feat a number of ways, each applicable in a different situation. If your patient expects her provisionals to appear completely natural, as if the case had already been completed, we use Virtual Temps from Valley Dental Arts. Virtual Temps are pre-made provisionals that we produce from the Master Diagnostic Model®. They are fully accurate in shading, characterization and coloration, and have the appearance of your patient's eventual permanent restorations.
If you produce the provisionals, we provide a silicone mold with the MDM®. When the silicone mold is filled with provisional material, as specified by the MDM's® very detailed characterization, the resulting provisionals are exquisite in detail.When you place them on your patient's prepped teeth, the patient can truly see what her smile looks like.
Temporaries assure patients
We can also create provisionals for temporary abutments in an implant case. The temporaries can be worn for as long as it takes your patient to feel assured and comfortable. At this time, you can check the patient for canine guidance, protrusion and occlusal harmony, as well as for phonetics. Ideally, your patient will approve the aesthetics of the case at this time.
During this process, and on subsequent provisional recheck appointments, you can make chair-side modifications. When the process is complete, and both you and your patient are comfortable with the results, you can take a silicone mold of the perfected provisionals. You then return the silicone mold and a patient photograph to Valley Dental Arts.
Valley Dental Arts will produce the final restorations knowing exactly what everyone’s expectations are. The final results reflect a perfect process of communication among the lab, doctor and patient--perfect communication made possible only with the use of a Master Diagnostic Model from Valley Dental Arts
