PROFESSIONAL OPINION

“Recently, I was given the opportunity to beta test a new medical device that is coming on to the dental market. The product is the Denta-Cool oral cold therapy device. This FDA registered device is unlike anything I have ever seen before in my 23 years of practicing dentistry and am interested in the possibilities it may have to impact the comfort and healing of patients who have undergone dental surgery.  

One of the growing areas in our practice is providing full arch dental implant solutions for fully or partially edentulous patients. We have completed over 150 of these cases in the past 18 months and generally we observe significant post-operative discomfort, swelling, and bruising. Obviously, all patients do not respond the same to surgery, however laying full thickness flaps and removing remarkable amounts of bone and teeth is traumatic regardless of a patients age, medical status, pain tolerance, etc. Generally, patients going through moderate to extensive dental surgery are prescribed opioids and or antibiotics and sometimes glucocorticoids. Most know that recently there has been a massive spotlight shown on opioid prescribing and the tendency of abuse and overuse. The media has called attention to it as has the government and agencies within the dental industry. Opioids can be very effective for the management of acute pain; however, they are getting so much negative attention that providers are seeking alternatives, and rightly so.“ Read more