Journal of the American Orthodontic Society • March

ORTHOBITES Fig. 4 Fig. 3 “Knowledge is powerful, and I have been given additional knowledge that has helped my cases tremendously.” Fig. 5 Fig. 6 because I used to accept the plan as the technician produced. It was kind of like telling your prosthetics labo- ratory to “make a crown on #30”, providing no instruc- tions as to what type of crown. The old saying, “poop in only produces poop out” applies in this scenario. Carry on a computer conversation with the laboratory techni- cian. Remember, you are the doctor, right? Last, I have improved my aligner fits by sending better impressions! I used to inject the polyvinylsiloxane around each tooth and insert the tray as I was taking an impression for a roundhouse bridge. Wrong!! Simply find the tray which extends past the posterior teeth, fill the tray with heavy body only in the area where there are teeth (not the palate!), and then inject the flowable body lightly onto the heavy body as you were decorat- ing a cake. And yes, I have decorated a cake. You can purchase beveled flat tips for the flowable. However, I simply cut about 2-3mm off the end of the regular tip, take Weigardt pliers, and squeeze the tip into a bevel. It works like a charm. I always make sure the flowable material extends and almost drips off of the end of the heavy body. I then seat the impression and achieve beautiful results. Recent Cases The first case is of a young male in his 20’s who happens to be the son of my former Farmersville, Texas office manager, Sandie (Fig. 1). He was unhappy with the protrusion of his lower right canine. We delivered the aligners one month later (Fig. 2). He has been in treat- ment for five months with aligners (Fig. 3). We are in the process of having some refinement trays fabricated to tuck in the lower canine more; however, he is very happy as of his last appointment (Figs. 3 and 4). The second case is a young man who received our Farmersville Dental Group scholarship (Fig. 5). We give money to a student each year who has desire to be in the medical or dental field. It is a great practice builder! His chief complaint was that he did not like the lower crowding of his front teeth, and he felt that his upper canines were too protrusive. We deliv- ered aligners one month after impressions (Fig. 6). www.orthodontics.com March/April 2010 29