Two Excellent Orthodontics Courses to Equip You:
Comprehensive Orthodontics and the Mastermind Course
Dr. Chris's Comprehensive Orthodontic Course is a great course for GP and Pediatric dentists at every level of orthodontic experience. Learn the principles of the major fixed and functional appliances with application to all present and future systems. These foundational principles will also allow you to utilize the best clinical tools. Get predictable, consistent reproducible treatment options not limited by manufacturer's marketing.
With more than 20 years' experience teaching orthodontics to GP and Pediatric dentists (Eight of those alongside the late, legendary Dr. Walter Doyle), Dr. Chris knows how to equip YOU with the knowledge you need to treat patients effectively and grow your practice. Two five-session orthodontics courses are offered. Your instructors will be Dr. Chris and Dr. Gil Carney, one of America's leading experts on occlusion. The foundational course is Dr. Chris Baker's Comprehensive Orthodontics and Craniofacial Orthopedics.
After completing the Comprehensive Course, or having fulfilled the AGD MasterTrack requirements for occlusion and myofacial pain using Dr. Chris Baker Seminar courses, you are invited to be part of the Mastermind Group, an ongoing opportunity for doctors to stay on the "cutting edge" and grow in orthodontic skill, as well as in treating occlusal issues and special cases. Many doctors continue as part of the Mastermind Group for years, finding great new ways to meet challenges and enjoying the fellowship of other doctors.
Outlines of Dr. Chris's orthodontic courses are below. For further descriptions of her occlusion courses, click HERE. Have a question? Feel free to contact Dr. Chris by clicking HERE.
Want to sign up? Call the American Orthodontic Society at 1-800-448-1601.
Comprehensive Course Outline
SESSION I: Getting started: Records, Examination and Structured diagnosis - Hands-on: ceph tracing and examination
A. Your orthopedic office systems
B. The orthodontic examination, including muscle palpations
C. The orthodontic patient
(1) The airway & its impact on childhood, growth, development, health, orthodontic treatment and adulthood
(2) Esthetics
D. Gathering orthodontic records
E. Cephalometric tracing
F. Ricketts ceph analysis
G. Your cases
SESSION II: Diagnosis, treatment planning and beginning treatment - Mechanics: bracketing on models, looped arch wire
A. Treatment planning and clinical considerations
(1) Review of “points and planes” measurements
(2) Skeletal classification and face typing
(3) Convexity in the frontal dimension
(4) Skeletal age vs. chronological age
(5) Airway and posture
(6) Profile and facial pattern
(7) Dental classification
(8) Problem analysis
(9) Use treatment planning checklist with sample case, side-by side on PowerPoint
B. Mega concepts
(1) Class I, Class II, Class III
(2) Skeletal vs. dental problems
(3) Facial type and impact on treatment
(4) Extraction vs. non-extraction treatment
C. Bracketing teeth
(1) Placement
(2) Sequence
(3) Bracketing cements
D. Typodonts: Crowding treatment mechanics - Looped arch wire
E. Your cases
SESSION III: Case selection, Class I treatment, limited primary and transitional dentition treatment, transverse discrepancies - Mechanics: sectional, utility, and full arch wires
A. Case selection - focus on Cl I crowded and mild Cl II
B. Expansion – Maxillary Expanding Appliances
C. Primary and transitional dentition treatment
(1) Phasing treatment – Phase I and Phase II
(2) Habits
(3) Crossbites
(4) The young Class III patient: Chin sling and facemask treatments
(5) When to consider extractions of primary canines: Make your life easier, your patients’ lives better and reduce risk of canine impactions
D. Typodonts - Full arch straight wire - Wire bending: sectionals and Utility Arch Wires
E. Your cases
SESSION IV: Understanding mechanics; early development of joints and occlusion, inter-arch A-P discrepancies, vertical discrepancies - Mechanics: distalizing cuspids, closing spaces
A. Isolating MX vs MD etiologies
B. Class I tx
C. Class II tx
D. Challenges in mechanics: Anchorage - Friction - Deepbites & biteplates - ARS - Distalizing molars
E. Typodonts: canine retraction and contraction utilities
F. Your cases
SESSION V: Detailing the case and Retention - Mechanics: detailing wire, closing wire
A. Case finishing and detailing - Root angulation - panoramic radiograph
B. Retention - Retainer designs - Use of retainers
C. Typodonts - Detailing wire - Closing wire
D. Your cases
Find out the locations and dates of Dr. Chris's Comprehensive course by clicking HERE.
About the Mastermind Course
What you can look forward to...
In the seminar-styled advanced series, each weekend will be customized to the needs of your group. Topics to be explored will include: how to integrate and manage orthodontics in the general or pediatric dental office, challenges in orthodontics, tips and helps with orthodontic mechanics, bonding: the current state of the art, complex treatment planning, and functional and dysfunctional occlusion. At each seminar, the area of functional occlusion will be studied to answer the questions: Restorative, crown and bridge and cosmetic dentistry too often fail and/or, frustrate the dentist and the patient when occlusion is poor. In your advanced seminar, we will examine the challenge of the patient’s, pre- or post-orthodontic treatment, who presented to the general dentist with uncomfortable or non-functional occlusions. Evaluation, diagnosis and treatment protocols will be discerned with the goals of both preventing and treating in such situations, making your patient an ally, not an adversary. Skill-building typodont exercises will further increase your comfort, efficiency and effectiveness of wire usage and TAD's.
Course Outline
SESSION I: Cephalometrics review - Q and A
Managing orthodontics in the general or pediatric dental office: Pleasure, Profitability and Integration Treatment planning and consultation
Functional Occlusion as a cornerstone to the establishment of realistic treatment goals in..
1) the growing patient and
2) the occlusally compromised adult Concepts of functional occlusion and dysfunctional occlusion
Risk management: Making your patient an ally, not an adversary:
Signs of a dysfunctional occlusion and the recognition of the red flags prior to orthodontic therapy
Typodont Exercises
SESSION II: Managing orthodontics in the dental office:
Staff and personalities
Advanced treatment planning considerations
Periodontal and esthetics considerations
Functional occlusion: development of clinical and laboratory expertise in the evaluation of occlusion
Typodonts: closing wires with maximum anterior anchorage
SESSION III: Bonding clinic : porcelain, amalgam, coposites, acrylic appliances, rebonding, glass ionomers, and bonded lingual retainers
Functional occlusion: Quantification of the CO/CR discrepancy and use of the Mandibular Position Indicator
Critical decision-making in the establishment of realistic orthodontic treatment goals
Typodonts: level anchorage
SESSION IV: Special challenges in orthodontic treatment:
Vertical growth and openbite
Missing teeth, especially lateral incisors
Root resorption
Late Class II, III growth
Noncompliance
Ectopic teeth
Functional occlusion: critical decision making in the establishment of the orthodontic treatment plan utilizing the functional occlusal analysis concept
When to treat and when to refer Mechanics to deal with special occlusal problems: TADS Occlusal splints
When to use Invisalign and when to avoid Invisalign
How to use Invisalign in the adult occlusally compromised patient
Typodont: TADs
SESSION V: Class II complexities
Expansion Q and A
Finishing, part 3
Bleaching Functional Occlusion: Are we done yet???
Elastofinisher – the tool to get you as close as possible.
Final occlusal records
Occlusal adjustment
To find out the location and dates of Dr. Chris's next Mastermind Course, click HERE.