Preparing for endodontic treatment: ‘Cooking for success
Informations
In our next webinar scheduled for Tuesday April 23, 2024 at 20:00, Andreas Louloudiadis, an Endodontist, will be covering the topic: “Preparing for endodontic treatment: 'Cooking for success”. This webinar is a collaboration of the Hellenic Association of Endodontists and the Dental Association of Lakonia. Attendees will be credited 1,5 CE credits (MEEO) as well as 1,5 CPD credits. The language of the webinar will be Greek.
Abstract
A recipe is like a strategy. It’s the how you will do the thing you’re doing, or in the case of cooking, it’s how you will make the thing you’re making. It has directions and a clearly defined input and output. It also has an anticipated outcome that can easily be measured – both qualitatively and quantitatively.
The recipe to be successful and lead to a tasty dish, beyond the basic ingredients that needs to be mixed together it also needs a positive mindset, a worthy goal and an inspired action. By choosing the right recipe to start with and then following it carefully, we can greatly increase the chances of making a tasty dish.
Does this description remind you of something? Endodontic treatment can easily be compared to preparing a recipe. It clearly has a strategy, it has stages that must be performed in the correct order, and of course it also has a specific goal with a result, which is the elimination of the patient's symptoms and the preservation of the tooth in the mouth.
So, what makes a great dish? What elevates the ordinary and turns it into wonderful and delicious?
It's choosing the right recipe and using the right ingredients. Likewise in the case of endodontic treatment, the correct diagnosis and planning of an adequate treatment plan is the starting point of a successful treatment. Through the appropriate diagnostic information, a clinician can improve the success rates of the treatment by choosing the right "ingredients", the appropriate preparation technique, thorough chemical-mechanical cleaning of the root system and, of course, a proper filling of the canals.
Creativity and skill are obviously important factors. You can take two chefs, give them the same ingredients, tell them to cook the same dish, and one will always be better than the other.
The dentist's skill in performing the procedure is clearly critical. Experience and training are essential 'ingredients' to achieve a successful result. Aristotle said that "knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom".
So, just like in the preparation of a meal, in endodontic treatment we must read the case correctly, establish an accurate diagnosis and then use the right "ingredients" that will lead us to a "delicious" result, a successful endodontic outcome.
By neglecting an ingredient or a step, our "meal" will come out unsalted, tasteless, a failure the least.
In this webinar, using cooking, which I love, as an analogy, we will talk and refer to the basic "ingredients" that are important for the outcome of a successful endodontic treatment, to which we usually do not give the importance they deserve, but without them we cannot talk about endodontic treatment success. The diagnosis, the clinical examination, the selection of the case, the patient's expectations, the knowledge and skill of the dentist, and final restoration are some of the "ingredients" that we will analyze. We will also refer to small tips and tricks that will give us that ‘’something extra’’ to the success of our recipe.
Short CV
Andreas Louloudiadis
I received my bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences majoring in Biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA in 1997. In 2001 I graduated with a Degree in Dental Medicine from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. After my graduation I worked as a clinical assistant in the department of Oral Diagnosis at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for 6 months.
In the period from 2002-2004 I was accepted in full-time training program in Endodontics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece.
After my Post Graduate Diploma in Endodontics I was accepted a for a PhD in Endodontics in 2005 at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece which I pursued until 2011 before I moved to the UK in 2011. At the same period, I was a clinical tutor in the Department of Endodontics at Aristotle University where I effectively supervised the clinical and laboratory training of Undergraduate and Post graduate Dental students.
In 2011 I moved to the UK which I live and work until now as an associate in different private practices offering endodontic treatments. I have completed level 1 and level 2 accreditation on CBCT imaging and reporting in 2021. In 2023 I received my MSc In Advanced Endodontics from University of Siena Italy.
I am certified member of European Endodontic Society and a member of the British Endodontic Society, and Hellenic Society of Endodontists and soon to be accepted as a member in the American Association of Endodontists.
In 2023 I was named as Fellow member of the Style Italiano Endodontics, and I have actively participated in several congress across the world. In December of 2023 I was named as a clinical tutor for the 2024 MSc Program in Advanced Endodontics of the University of Siena Italy.
