Dental Trauma and the Winter X Games

We dealt with a dental trauma last week, ironically the week after the Winter X Games. These adventure sports bring their own particular risks. Our patient had a fall while snowboarding and traumatized one of his anterior, or “front” teeth. Unfortunately, this trauma will cause the tooth to need reconstruction with root canal therapy, a post, and an all porcelain crown. This like many injuries could have been prevented with a professionally made dental mouthguard.

A few years ago I attended a continuing education course that was given by a Denver Prosthodontist that did hundreds of dental implant reconstructions per year. He cited Denver’s active skiing, snowboarding and outdoor culture for the damage to many teeth that required implants to restore optimum occlusion.

I love these individual sports and find watching them on television to be my preferred way to experience them, not out there on the mountainside. A wide range of music has been playing recently in the office and we also got to enjoy the story one of our patients told us about attending a classic James Brown Convert in the late 60’s in Louisville. The mental picture he painted of the Godfather of Soul getting down on stage was quite a joy for myself and my assistant.

As it has been the last few weeks, I continue to enjoy both Spotify and electronic music including some new bands like Class Actress and some moderately current bands like Grizzly Bear and of course classics like Radiohead.