Dr. Michael DiTolla
255 Walnut Street
Newport Beach, CA 
949-440-2659

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Upcoming Schedule | Lecture Topics | Course Comments

A 1988 graduate of University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, Dr. DiTolla was awarded fellowship in the AGD in 1995. Dr. DiTolla was recently awarded with the 2011 DrBicuspid Dental excellence Award for “Most effective Dentist educator.” Dr. DiTolla is a graduate of the LVI, and is also a clinical evaluator for CRA. In 2001, he became Director of Clinical Research and education at Glidewell labs, giving him an intimate knowledge of American dentists and their crown and bridge habits. Dr. DiTolla launched Chairside Magazine in 2006 and is the clinical editor of this quarterly publication that frequently presents his own clinical case studies, and writes a monthly column on restorative dentistry for Dental economics.  

Upcoming Schedule

Date	Location	Group	Lecture

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Lecture Topics

The Modern Restorative Practice (Full day lecture)
Several new all-ceramic restorations have made serious in-roads into the number of PFM’s being done every year. CAD/CAM technology in the dental laboratory has helped to make these restorations more consistent in terms of fit, contact and occlusion. Full contour zirconia restorations have already made large inroads to the industry, and their use will be discussed. Digital shade taking has improved to the point where in addition to dentists using it, many labs QC their restorations with it as well. Modern anesthesia techniques allow us to now deliver single tooth anesthesia to mandibular molars as well, avoiding lower blocks, which are the most frequently missed injection. Digital impressions allow us to make the process fully digital and make restorations more accurate and more economical as well.

Course Objectives:
After completing this program, the dental professional should be able to:

1. Recognize the shift from PfM’s to monolithic materials that allow the clinician to use high strength materials while satisfying patient’s esthetic desires.
2. Understand when the use of a rapid anesthesia technique and how anesthetizing mandibular molars without a block is beneficial for clinicians and patients.
3. Understand digital impressions and their use in digital restorative dentistry and see a demonstration of each of the currently available systems.
4. Be familiar with full contour zirconia and the pros and cons of using this structural ceramic material as a crown and bridge material.
5. Be familiar with the new class of cementable all-ceramic restorations such as lithium disilicate, and understand how the CAD/CAM milling process can improve consistency and quality.

Top 10 Crown & Bridge Mistakes-How to Prevent & Correct Them (Full day lecture)
This seminar is a combination of photographs and live patient treatment video to illustrate methods to improve your crown and bridge restorations. This information applies to all-ceramic restorations as well as traditional ceramo-metal restorations.

There were approximately 45 million crowns done in the United States last year, and according to Dr. Gordon Christensen, almost 90% of the impressions that dental laboratories received did not have clearly visible margins around the entire preparation periphery! A procedure performed this often clearly needs to be more predictable, and thus more profitable.

Because of his unique arrangement with Glidewell Laboratories, Dr. DiTolla has access to the thousands of impressions and models they receive on a weekly basis, and he has done an exhaustive study of the preparation and impression techniques of American dentists. You will see the good, the bad and the ugly; and the compromises a laboratory has to make in these situations.

Course Objectives:
After completing this program, the dental professional should be able to:

1. Recognize the various treatment modalities available to the modern practitioner to help them restore the mouth in an esthetic manner.
2. Be familiar with multiple preparation techniques that allow practitioners to prepare teeth in a predictable man ner to achieve optimum reduction, esthetics and function.
3. List the most acceptable impression technique for a variety of fixed prosthodontic scenarios, and recognize an optimal impression and how to produce one routinely.
4. List the indications and specifications for the new class of the new all-ceramic restorative systems, and compare these to esthetic PFM restorations.

All-Ceramic Restorative Update (Full day lecture)
All-ceramic restorations continue to make inroads into the overall restorative market at the rate of about 1-2 percent each year. In the year 2000 approximately 20 of restorations were all-ceramic and year-to-date it has risen to 47% of restorations. Metal-free restorative options include composites, pressed ceramics, and cementable all-ceramic products. Each of these metal-free options has a place in current esthetic restorative dentistry, and I will share what I think are the proper indications for each of these materials. We certainly have seen failures in the lab when dentists attempt to push these materials beyond their indications. There are still several clinical situations that call exclusively for the use of PFM restorations, but that list of situations is shrinking.

Course Objectives:
After completing this program, the dental professional should be able to:

1. Recognize the various treatment modalities available to the modern practitioner to help them restore the mouth in an esthetic manner.
2. Be familiar with the use of more conservative all-ceramic restorations such as no-prep and minimal prep porcelain veneers.
3. Be familiar with zirconia oxide and the pros and cons of using this structural ceramic material as a crown and bridge substructure.
4. Be familiar with the new class of cementable all-ceramic restorations, lithium disilicate, and understand how the CAD/ CAM milling process can improve consistency and quality.

Digital Impressions and Restorative Dentistry (Half Day Lecture)
This course is a combination of lecture and live patient clinical video to demonstrate the use of digital impressions for crown and bridge procedures. Is this technology “ready for prime-time” or is it better to hold off on the purchase of a unit?

Dr. DiTolla is the only dentist in the US who owns all three of the commercially available digital impression units, in addition to one pre-market system. As a result he is uniquely qualified to compare and contrast the features, benefits, and shortcomings of the major systems.

Dr. DiTolla shows real-time digital impressions being taken from start to finish to help dentists decide whether one of these systems is right for them. Model fabrication and chairside milling units will also be discussed.

Course Objectives:
After completing this program, the dental professional should be able to:

1. Recognize the various digital impression systems and list the features, benefits and shortcomings of each of the major systems.
2. Be familiar with the hard and soft tissue requirements for making a digital impression vs. making a conventional impression.
3. Be familiar with the time and cost requirements for these systems, and how a typical digital impression system would fit into their practice overhead structure.
4. Recognize how models are generated from these systems, and how a digital impression scanner can be used in a modeless system with a chairside milling unit.

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Course Comments

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