I am a bicycling addict and have been since high school.
I love riding to work, to meetings, escaping up into the mountains or to the store.
In fact, I was surprised by my car odometer, which indicates that I had motored for less than 5,000 miles in all of 2009 (that’s a record for me).
Cycling is happening here in the area. We just hosted the 5th Tour of California, where the pros devour thousands of miles of grueling California asphalt.
I enjoy these same long rides, and as the effort hammers my body, energy stores are depleted and my mind drifts. Often I drift to thinking about teeth. Yes, I have solve a number of your dental problems while riding my bike. Here’s a problem I found myself poring over during one ride.
A patient’s front tooth was missing and needed replacement with either a dental implant and crown.
Implants provide amazing longevity, function and esthetics. But, a good implant can only be so small, and sometimes they are not slender enough to re-create a little tooth – see the photo at the start of this post. It can be done, but not without the use of metal, which can make a tooth look dark.
Having a great ride that day, with smoke from the 2008 Santa Cruz mountains rising in the south, I was thinking about small teeth and implants. My bike mind dreamed up the solution – a way to use a super strong tooth colored material called zirconia for creation of a small tooth.
Just as strong as the metal option, but esthetically superior. As you can see from the second photo, it worked wonders.
If you see me out riding my bike and wondering what’s going on in my mind, I might just be designing someone’s tooth. What will you be thinking about on your next ride?
