Tallahassee, FL - The National Association of Dental Laboratories (NADL), National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology (NBC), and The Foundation for Dental Laboratory Technology recently inducted their 2015 leaders at the Vision 21 meeting in Las Vegas. Below are the incoming board presidents/chairs.

Harold A. Burdette, Jr., CDT

2015 NADL President

Harold A. Burdette, Jr., CDT, is the CEO of Burdette Dental Lab, Inc., a Certified Dental Laboratory (CDL) in Birmingham, AL. He has served as Fiscal Officer of the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology (NBC) and he has served on several of NADL’s Committees including the Audit Committee, the Communications Advisory Board, the Budget & Finance Committee, and the Business Management Committee. Burdette is a current board member with the CAL-LAB Group and an Advisor with the Southeastern Conference of Dental Laboratories. He holds a CDT specialty in every discipline except the Orthodontics and the Implants specialties.

Most recently, he has held the position of Treasurer and served as President-Elect in 2014 on the NADL Board of Directors.

Thomas “Buddy” Wester, CDT, TE

2015 NBC Chair

Thomas “Buddy” Wester, CDT, TE, is the Dental Center Manager with Modern Dental USA in Savannah, GA. He graduated from the Atlanta Area Technical School and has been certified in the Crown & Bridge specialty for 32 years. In 2007, he became a certified LVI Master Technician. Wester previously served on the board for the Florida Dental Laboratory Association (FDLA), serving on several committees as well as President. In 2008, he was awarded the FACD Smile Gallery Gold Medal for his entry at the annual meeting. He was also awarded the 2008 FACD Smile Gallery Members’ Choice Award, the competition’s highest honor.

Wester has served on the Board of Trustees for NBC since 2009, and in his time has held the role of Secretary/Fiscal Officer, Vice Chair, and Chair. This is his second year as Chair.

Leon Hermanides, CDT

2015 Foundation Chair

Leon Hermanides, CDT, graduated from a college in South Africa with a National Higher Diploma in Dental Technology, a four-year diploma equivalent to a Bachelor’s Degree in the USA. He has worked in South Africa, London and Seattle laboratories, specializing in all stages of advanced reconstructions and anterior esthetics. In 1998, he established Protea Dental Studio, Inc., DAMAS, in Redmond, WA, which specializes in providing comprehensive, implant and anterior restorative cases.

Hermanides currently serves on the National Association of Dental Laboratories board and has previously served as Chair on the Board of Directors of the Washington State Dental Laboratory Association during his nine years on the board. He has served on the Foundation for Dental Laboratory Technology’s board since the beginning of 2011, serving in many roles, including Vice Chair and Fiscal Officer. This is his second year as Chair.

Las Vegas, NV – Core3dcentres® and Thommen Medical announced that Core3dcentres has been recognized as the only Authorized Milling Center for Thommen Implant System custom and hybrid abutments in North America. Core3dcentres has undergone a rigorous certification process (including machined samples, material handling, and product training) to ensure their Milling Centers are delivering custom and hybrid abutments, using genuine Thommen material, and meeting the high standards and quality that Thommen demands.

The partnership opens up new opportunities for the dental industry and reinforces both companies’ commitment to using the best technologies, materials, and processes available in the market today.

For more information on Thommen Implant System Abutment products from Core3dcentres, or any other products, services and educational offerings, visit www.core3dcentres.com; call 1-888-750-9204; or email InfoUSA@core3dcentres-na.com.

San Diego, CA - On November 19, 2014, The Argen Corporation hosted “The Future of Digital Dentistry” seminar in San Diego, California, featuring guest speakers Gordon Christensen, DDS, MSD, PhD, and Robert Lowe, DDS. The event focused on the emerging digital technologies and how they benefit both the dental laboratory and the dentist. Dental laboratory professionals and dentists from locations throughout the United States attended the seminar. Attendees were invited to tour the Argen Digital manufacturing facility at the Argen Corporation headquarters following the seminar.

Presentations covered a range of pertinent topics including innovations in clinical dentistry and dental laboratory technology, intraoral scanning and split files, and leading Zirconia material options. “Argen is dedicated to partnering with the dental laboratory. We offered this joint program to help our laboratory customers educate their dentist-customers about new digital technologies and the valuable role these technologies can play in their practices,” said Anton Woolf, CEO, Argen Corporation.

Christensen spoke on the importance of digital technology for both the dental laboratory and the dentist. He stressed that the dental laboratory and the dentist need to be reunited and work closely together to deliver the best products for their patients.

“Dentists need to know about milling and printing options for restorative work, such as those available from Argen Digital,” said Dr. Christensen. He congratulated Argen on the development of digital products such as ArgenZ Transitionally shaded Zirconia and Selective laser melted substructures, stating, “I believe Argen is going to take the industry with this technology."

Lowe spoke on how he has embraced digital technologies within his practice and highlighted key products and tools that have helped him to be more successful from digital diagnosis, to impression making, communication with the dental laboratory, and restoration fabrication.

Jeff Lowthorp, Director of Global Business Development, Argen Corp., and Logan Woomer, 3Shape Specialist, Argen Corp., presented a live demonstration of an intraoral scan using a 3Shape TRIOS scanner. They demonstrated how a laboratory easily accepts an intraoral scan and designs a restoration using 3Shape software for a wide range of material options, including custom abutments, wax tops, gold crowns, ArgenZ Zirconia crown, and more.

Chris Lowthorp, R&D Consultant for the Argen Corporation, reviewed the current full-contour Zirconia material options available through the digital workflow. He further explained the benefits of transitionally shaded zirconia, such as ArgenZ Esthetic Zirconia, over monochromatic pre-shaded zirconia discs. Paul Cascone, Sr. VP of Research and Development at Argen, explained the process of developing alloys for the Selective Laser Melting process and reviewed Argen’s full line of SLM metals including SLM Non Precious, SLM Noble 25, SLM High Noble, and SLM Captek.

Woolf closed the afternoon with a brief history of Argen and delivered the vision of Argen’s role within the future of digital dentistry. “Our role is to deliver the highest quality products and services to support our dental laboratory partners. Making technologies available to labs of all sizes and becoming a partner in their success,” he said.

VITA North America recently released a new online continuing education (CE) course focused on VITA’s popular VM LC color palette.

The online course teaches viewers how to expand their color palette using an all new range of shades. Designed for a wide range of indications, VITA’s VM LC offers optimum processing characteristics for quick results, excellent shade stability, and low plaque affinity.

The audience will learn how to mimic the reproduction of fluorescence and opalescence of natural teeth, while creating aesthetic restorations virtually indistinguishable from ceramics. The course also covers how VITA VM LC can be built up over metal and resin frameworks and its indications for veneering of full and partial crowns, bridges, inlays, and onlays.

The program costs $39.95 and offers 1 hour of CE credits. The viewer has access to unlimited viewing and program notes.

For registration information or further details on a specific course, call William Edgerton at 800-828-3839, ext. 226. For more information on VITA quality products, call 800-828-3839 or visit vitanorthamerica.com/courses.

VITA North America recently hosted 3 days of in-depth technical product training for its entire North American laboratory sales force at its new Yorba Linda, California corporate office. Sales representatives traveled from across the country in Canada and the United States for hands-on training and presentations on VITA products, including veneering materials, CAD/CAM blocks and discs, denture teeth, and shade measurement and communication.

"This was a great opportunity to show our sales team the new corporate facility and build camaraderie while getting a refresher on all things VITA," says Stephen Moore, North American Laboratory Sales Director.

Field representatives also got to spend a significant amount of time with their inside sales, marketing and customer service counterparts.

“One of the biggest takeaways from the training was the idea of working as cross-departmental groups in order to provide our laboratory customers the best technical support and service possible, whether they were calling on the phone or visiting with a sales rep in person,” Moore says.

Spokane – The Aurum Group has announced that Angus Barrie has joined its team as General Manager of the Vancouver location. Also, Jeff Zeilstra has transitioned from Territory Manager to Operations Manager, Aurum Ceramic Vancouver.

Barrie brings with him more than 25 years of in-depth experience in laboratory operations and management. Since 2002, he has specialized technically on implant and CAD/CAM restorations, acquiring broad expertise with major implant systems, CAD/CAM software and implant restoration planning. He has supplemented this by attending courses with Kois, 3M, Dental Wings, Nobel Biocare, Panthera, and many others.

Joining the Aurum Group in 2012 as Territory Manager for both Vancouver and Victoria laboratory locations, Zeilstra has taken the lead on customer relations, business growth, and local CE initiatives. A graduate of the Kinesiology program at UBC, Zeilstra has experience in all aspects of CAD/CAM dentistry, modern restorative materials, implant dentistry, and intra-oral scanning technology.

As an industry leader in supply chain integrity, Patterson Companies, Inc. (Nasdaq: PDCO) today announced that its Patterson Dental business is launching an educational campaign, highlighted by its new website located at www.DentalSupplyIntegrity.com, to help protect dentists and their patients from purchasing or using potentially unsafe gray market dental products. Patterson’s initiative is being introduced at the Chicago Dental Society’s Midwinter Meeting, held in Chicago on February 26-28, 2015, booth #1025.

“Given the potential for dentists to unknowingly purchase counterfeit or dangerous products, we believe that it is important to raise awareness of this issue,” said Paul Guggenheim, President of Patterson Dental. “Dentists cannot be confident that products purchased through the gray market are genuine, safe or that they have been handled appropriately. We believe that by purchasing deeply discounted gray market products, dentists are exposing themselves and their patients to unnecessary risks.”

DentalSupplyIntegrity.com users will find informational resources about the gray market, including how to identify these products and potential industry solutions to the problem. Included on the website are, among other items, a video, infographic, FAQ and a white paper on the topic. 

In addition to improving industry awareness, Patterson is working diligently to ensure that products distributed through Patterson Dental are sourced directly from the manufacturer – and not through unintended distribution channels carrying deeply discounted gray market products. These channels are frequently the same as those carrying counterfeit or other illegal black market products.

Added Guggenheim: “Patterson Dental is committed to the highest supply chain integrity. We hope to work more closely with the dental industry to develop consistent, industry-wide safeguards and protections.”

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the term “gray market” generally refers to products that are sold outside the established distribution chain, typically at a deeply discounted price (e.g., products intended to be sold abroad, but instead imported and sold in the U.S.). Such products may or may not satisfy FDA-related requirements, or other applicable laws and regulations. A significant concern is that products available on the gray market are often indistinguishable from defective or illegal counterfeit “black market” products that travel through those same distribution channels. 

The Academy of Osseointegration (AO) announces that Dr. Stephen M. Parel, Dallas, will be the eighth recipient of the Nobel Biocare Brånemark Osseointegration Award. This award, made possible by a grant from Nobel Biocare, is given annually by the Osseointegration Foundation (OF), AO’s philanthropic arm, to honor an individual whose impact on implant dentistry is exemplary in any or all of the Foundation’s mission categories: research, education, and charitable causes.

“Dr. Parel carried the late Professor Per-Ingvar Brånemark’s message about osseointegration across the U.S. in a series of seminars and headed one of the original training centers in San Antonio,” said OF President Dr. Clarence C. Lindquist who will present the award Thursday, March 12 at 1:15 pm prior to the Annual Meeting’s Opening Symposium. “He is a distinguished clinician, researcher, and osseointegration educator who is quite worthy of this award.”

Active in AO from its founding, Dr. Parel was Annual Meeting Chair in 1994 and President in 1995. “Given the recent passing of Professor Brånemark, this year’s award carries even greater significance and I am truly humbled by this great honor,” said Dr. Parel. 

Professor Brånemark was the first Nobel Biocare Brånemark Award recipient, and his life and legacy will be honored with a special video tribute that will be presented during the Annual Meeting’s Opening Session.

Dr. Parel received his dental degree from The Medical College of Virginia in 1969. He spent one year as a general practice resident with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Richmond, followed by a two-year residency in Prosthodontics at the Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles. He received his Maxillofacial Prosthetics training in Houston at the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in 1973. He became a faculty member in the University of Texas System in 1975, rising to the rank of full professor in the San Antonio Medical and Dental Schools in 1978. He served as head of the Maxillofacial Prosthetics Division in the Department of Prosthodontics until 1991.

Dr. Parel is a Diplomate of the American Board of Prosthodontics, the American and International College of Dentists, and is a member of many professional organizations, including the American Dental Association, the Academy of Prosthodontics, and the American College of Prosthodontics.

His literature contributions include over 45 scientific articles as principal author, and multiple textbook contributions. He was editor and co-author with Dr. Dan Sullivan of the textbook Esthetics and Osseointegration, a landmark reference sourcefor implant dentistry. He authored his second book, The SmiLine System, in 1991, and completed a third book, Esthetic Implant Restorations,several years later. He was co-founder of Osseointegration Seminars, Incorporated. In addition to serving as AO President, he has been president of The American Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics and the Osseointegration Foundation.

He has received the Andrew J. Ackerman Award for meritorious lifetime service in the field of Maxillofacial Prosthetics, the Distinguished Lecturer and Dan Gordon Awards from the American College of Prosthodontics, and has served as an examiner and President of The American Board of Prosthodontists.

Dr. Parel has served as a professor at Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas. He was also director of the Center of Oral Maxillofacial Prosthodontics in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/Pharmacology from 1998 until 2008. From 2008 until 2013, he served as the founder and director of Prosthodontics at a private Implant Specialty Clinic in Dallas, Texas. He is presently in private practice, and serves as a consultant to several companies in the implant industry.

Other previous Nobel Biocare Brånemark Award honorees include Drs. Daniel Buser, William R. Laney, and George A. Zarb, and Professors Daniel van Steenberghe, Ulk Lekholm, and Tomas Albrektsson.

Case Western Reserve University dental researcher Pushpa Pandiyan has discovered a new way to model how infection-fighting T cells cause inflammation in mice. The hope is that the discovery can lead to new therapies or drugs that jump-start weakened or poorly functioning immune systems, said Pandiyan, an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve School of Dental Medicine.

Pandiyan believes the process could lead to identifying and testing new drugs to replace antifungal medicines that have become ineffective as the fungi develop a resistance to them.

Pandiyan's findings are explained and demonstrated in the Journal of Visualized Experiments video and print article, "Th17 inflammation model of oropharyngeal candidiasis in immunodeficient mice."

The research advances Pandiyan's previous work on isolating different types of oral T cells for study. T cells are a type of white blood cell that is critical to the body's immune system.

In the newest research, she used T cells and injected them into mice genetically engineered with no immunity to test how the cells function when fighting a common thrush-like yeast infection found in the mouth, called Candida albicans. When the infection fighting cells are not controlled properly, they caused inflammation.

According to Pandiyan, about 60% of the population has the fungus, but a healthy immune system keeps it under control.

In humans with weak immune system, the fungal growth appears as a white coating on the tongue. Individuals with the infection report a painful burning sensation in the mouth. As the infection spreads, it causes inflammation of the mouth area, tongue and gums. Left untreated, it can spread to the throat and the food pipe.

The infection becomes a particular health problem for people with the HIV/AIDS infection, cancer patients with immune systems weakened by chemotherapy or those born with no immune defenses.

In her study, Pandiyan was specifically interested in how a type of T cells that secrete a cytokine IL-17a (T helper 17, or Th17 cells), and T regulatory cells (Tregs) controlled the fungal infection and inflammation, respectively.

"Although Th17 cells are required for antifungal immunity, uncontrolled Th17 cells have been implicated with such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, lupus, psoriasis, cancers and irritable bowel disease," she said.

The immunodeficient mice were infected with the fungus and injected with Th17 cells.

One group of mice was also injected with Tregs, which are the main regulators of autoimmunity and critical to the immune system functioning properly.

Researchers then tracked how the cells functioned in controlling the infection.

The group that received both Th17 and Tregs fared better in stopping the infection and thriving during inflammation. Conversely, the mice that did not receive Tregs lost weight and began to waste away.

The researchers also found the immune system doesn't work well when the Th17 cells malfunction without appropriate control. "They can set into action a series of immune responses that develop into inflammation and greater health issues," Pandiyan said.

Pandiyan and her team provide visual instructions about lab techniques and special handling of the immunodeficient mice so other T-cell researchers can duplicate the process.

While Pandiyan studied Th17's role in fighting the yeast infection, she said other researchers could use the method to study Th17 cell functions in other areas of the body.

Case Western Reserve dental school researchers Aaron Weinberg, associate dean and chair of the Department of Biological Science, and Natarajan Bhaskaran, a research associate in biological sciences, contributed to the study.

Source: Medical News Today

Stem cells from the dental pulp of wisdom teeth can be coaxed to turn into cells of the eye’s cornea and could one day be used to repair corneal scarring due to infection or injury, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, published online today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, indicate they also could become a new source of corneal transplant tissue made from the patient’s own cells.

Corneal blindness, which affects millions of people worldwide, is typically treated with transplants of donor corneas, said senior investigator James Funderburgh, Ph.D., professor of ophthalmology at Pitt and associate director of the Louis J. Fox Center for Vision Restoration of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh, a joint program of UPMC Eye Center and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

“Shortages of donor corneas and rejection of donor tissue do occur, which can result in permanent vision loss,” Dr. Funderburgh said. “Our work is promising because using the patient’s own cells for treatment could help us avoid these problems.”

Experiments conducted by lead author Fatima Syed-Picard, Ph.D., also of Pitt’s Department of Ophthalmology, and the team showed that stem cells of the dental pulp, obtained from routine human third molar, or wisdom tooth, extractions performed at Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine, could be turned into corneal stromal cells called keratocytes, which have the same embryonic origin.

The team injected the engineered keratocytes into the corneas of healthy mice, where they integrated without signs of rejection. They also used the cells to develop constructs of corneal stroma akin to natural tissue.

“Other research has shown that dental pulp stem cells can be used to make neural, bone and other cells,” Dr. Syed-Picard noted. “They have great potential for use in regenerative therapies.”

In future work, the researchers will assess whether the technique can correct corneal scarring in an animal model.