The 27th May meeting of Anstruther Rotary club was a bit less comfortable than usual, as the talk was by club member John O’Neill, providing some insight to his profession of dentistry.

Informative, certainly, and entertaining in a somewhat apprehensive way that had some in the audience shifting uneasily in their chairs! What we had was a comprehensive look at various ways to ‘fill the gap’ – from a simple single-tooth plastic denture to extremely expensive titanium implants and jawbone replacement techniques. All illustrated with full-colour slides and boxes of samples – including some from patients (although well sterilised we were assured)

We heard how the alveolar bone shrinks when teeth are lost and that it is this which is a root! (sorry) cause of the challenges a dentist faces in providing comfortable, functional and cosmetically attractive replacements – be they dentures, bridges or implants. But the technology John demonstrated was impressive, with very fine workmanship evident in the many examples of single and multi-tooth replacements using advanced plastics and rare metals. No mass production here, but everything made to fit the individual patient and held in place with finely wrought metal frames – or permanently bonded in place with modern adhesives.

The finale was what John described as the ‘Rolls Royce’ gap filler – at perhaps £2,500 per tooth. This proved to be a beautifully engineered implant, made from precious metals and designed to be screwed into the jaw and with the tooth support and tooth then fitted to it.  

Altogether a fascinating insight to what modern dentistry can achieve – and certainly a powerful inducement to keep flossing!

Following questions a vote of thanks was proposed by Allan Wood.