Several year ago I was asked if I would teach shade matching to D2 students in their second year fixed prosthodontics dental course. As this lecture was (and still is) the one shot for students to get that information I thought to myself: “wow, what an honor and a privilege!”. I immediately said yes and got to work researching my subject matter. Quickly I realized: “what the fork was I thinking? What the fork did I get myself into? This is some really boring shit! How the fork am I going to pull this off? Thanks George?!”.
Well, several years have passed since that fateful and lame brained idea came over me. I actually did put together a shade matching lecture and presented it. What’s more is I’ve actually presented that lecture several times since then. Further, I keep getting invited back each year to present that lecture (probably because it’s such boring shit that no one wants to tackle that lecture). What’s even more is I have had a few (very few) students over the years actually tell me that my lecture was valuable (liars).
And here we are in 2020 and we’re staring down the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we are standing in front of the firing squad wondering who will get mowed down by the bug. Will it be me? Will it be any of my friends and/or loved ones? How long will this last? What will America look like after this bug passes? When will we get a coherent and consistent message from our so-called “leaders” in Washington DC?
Well, I was supposed to give my shade matching lecture again this year (March 31st to be exact). That ain’t happening. Collective big sigh of relief from my D2 students! Yeah, no. I found a lecture capture recording of me presenting that lecture several years ago. And this may actually be an improvement as students can see my powerpoint slides and hear me talking and NOT have to see my ugly mug!
Truth be told, I love presenting my shade matching lecture. And I present that lecture in a way that I want lectures to be presented to me (I have endured a shit load of shitty lectures). For instance, I throw in a whole bunch of audience participation. And I generally throw in a bunch of my crazy shit in an attempt to make the information accessible, interesting, and maybe even a little fun (people will probably disagree with that). So I am a bit bummed that I am not presenting my lecture this year. Yes, my lecture capture and my study guide were distributed to all of my D2 students (all of my test questions come directly from the study guide). But I feel like my lecture needs…me (some would argue against that). So I’m trying to bring a little bit of my lecture to my blog (in small digestible parts).
Now, my lecture has a whole bunch of cheesy and hokey shit in it. However, I put a whole lot of time and effort into that cheesy and hokey shit. Most of the pictures/photographs and “art work” are my own. So I ask that people please be kind as to what they do with my intellectual property (Notice of Copyright: Copyright © 2020. Patrick James Knapp Jr, BS, DDS, MDR. All rights reserved. No part of this presentation may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission of Patrick James Knapp Jr, BS, DDS, MDR.). Also, unless otherwise stated my reference is: Rosenstiel, S.F., Land, M.F., & Fujimoto, J. (2016). Contemporary fixed prosthodontics (5th ed.) (pp. 624-640), St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Color! Imagine flying out of dull gray damp Milwaukee in early March, landing in sunny Orlando, and taking Disney’s Magical Express to Walt Disney World. EPCOT to be exact. And your eyes (and vitamin D depleted brain) awaken to EPCOT’s International Flower and Garden Festival. Color! Color brings life to…life. We crave color. We depend on color. And our world has evolved around color.
With color we can go from lifeless lumps of clay:
To beautiful and functional works of art:
With color we can go from another strange lump of clay:
To something that comes to life:
And even:
Breakfast. Maybe this looks artistic but:
And look at what happens when we add color:
So the crux of this blog/article/rambling is Porcelain Shade Matching. And why is porcelain shade matching important? It certainly helps us communicate with our dental labs more effectively as our labs are charged with crafting beautiful restorations for our patients. But ultimately it’s about esthetics and PLEASING our patients. Pleased patients means happy patients (even though they may still hate dentists). Patients won’t know why a restoration does or doesn’t look right but patients won’t be happy when their restorations don’t look right and we have an obligation to give patients restorations that work well…and look right.
Now, I feel like there is no way that we’ll be able to really appreciate shade matching without taking a trip to ART CLASS (with a little physics…and maybe even a little dentistry thrown in for good measure). More on that in Part 2.
Doc's Writing Refuge 