Deep margin elevation is a technique that allows subgingival defects in a tooth to be restored without crown lengthening surgery. Saving patients healing time and higher treatment costs, deep margin elevations can be performed as part of a restoration appointment and can benefit overall oral health compared to traditional recommendations for treating subgingival areas of the tooth.

Dental students spend their time in dental school honing their hand skills, studying the pathologies they will eventually treat and so much more. Having trained doctors for the past 20 years, Dr. David Alleman has seen where dental schools provide students with crucial knowledge but also the critical information many leave out. At the Alleman Center, our view is not that dental schools need to teach more information, but that they should modernize the protocols and concepts they teach based on current research. By understanding the last four decades of dental research and innovations, students can graduate from dental school with a better understanding of how to make predictable, long-lasting restorations.

Have you ever cut a tooth down for a crown and felt that removing that much tooth structure is wrong? You’re not alone. Many dentists (and patients) are looking to conservative dental practices with the goal of preserving their healthy tooth structure. But when doctors are faced with delaminations and sensitive restorations, it can be difficult to move away from retention form.

Seeing dental photography online may give the impression that the goal is sharing a beautiful photo and that unless you want to invest in a DSLR camera, lighting and editing software, it isn’t a hobby worth exploring. While many dentists get great satisfaction from a beautiful photo of a restoration — Alleman Center doctors included! — we recommend that every dentist should be taking photos of their work. This is because we see dental photography as a tool for better dentistry.

Many students are drawn to the field of dentistry because of how it combines science, art and helping patients. Honing your skills in both the scientific and artistic elements of dentistry can greatly contribute to professional satisfaction, and your work in these areas can set you apart as a practitioner. Art in dentistry is inspired by natural teeth, so, naturally, biomimetic dentistry offers a scientific foundation for the artistic aspects.

Many dentists execute everything they were trained to do perfectly and still experience failing restorations. Why? Traditional techniques do not address these key problems.

Dr. David Alleman, DDS is one of the founding leaders in biomimetic restorative dentistry, but when he was first introduced to adhesive principles by Dr. Ray Bertolotti in 1995, he had already quit practicing dentistry.

Despite having a scientific foundation from research that is four decades old, biomimetic dentistry, also known as biomimetic restorative dentistry, may seem new to many doctors and patients. So the question will arise, “Is biomimetic dentistry worth it?” This is a decision every doctor and patient should make for themself, so let’s explore some sides to this question.

When it comes to crack diagnosis and treatment, cracks are often overlooked without proper magnification during routine check-ups. Pain on biting is often treated by trying to stabilize the fracture with a crown or try to bond over and infiltrate the crack. These treatments have varied success with some teeth proceeding to root canal or extraction.

Like many dentists, Alleman Center mentor Dr. Dafina Doberdoli was drawn to the field from her interest in science, medicine and helping others. Inspired by her aunt who is also a dentist, she thought of dentistry as a possible career for herself. “I saw that not many women were dentists in my country. Seeing her work, I thought I could do that too.”

This June saw the Alleman Center’s second-annual Retreat in Park City, Utah. Doctors from as far as Denmark, Belgium and Chile gathered to share their work, celebrate science and connect with other doctors in the field. With ten classes of expert doctors already trained through the Alleman Center Biomimetic Mastership, the pool of alumni is quickly growing, but the bonds formed between the doctors who learn together are here to stay.

If there was one thing you could do differently in your dentistry that would immediately improve your clinical outcomes, would you do it? This sounds like a gimmick or an infomercial for the latest technology for dental offices but actually involves a $40 bottle of solution you probably remember from dental school and a dive into the science behind why it reliably improves restorations.

“If it weren’t for the doctors I mentor, I would be on a beach right now in the Philippines,” Alleman Center mentor Dr. Patrick Calalang often says with a smile and a laugh. Yes, that is a positive statement.

Biomimetic Dentistry, also known as Biomimetic Restorative Dentistry, has seen a rise in recognition in recent years, but these techniques didn’t spring up overnight. Called Adhesive Dentistry when the techniques were first explored in the 1980’s by Fusayama, the term Biomimetic Restorative Dentistry was defined by Pascal Magne in his 2002 book with U. Belser, Bonded Porcelain Restorations in the Anterior Dentition, as “The biomimetic principle, that is the idea that the intact tooth... is the guide to reconstruction….”

Welcome to the Alleman Center of Biomimetic Dentistry. In 2019, Hillary Alleman founded the center to create a Biomimetic Mastership program featuring her father’s work, the Six Lessons Approach to Biomimetic Dentistry. The Biomimetic Mastership is a comprehensive program that teaches dentists how to use the Six Lessons Approach to create the best outcomes for their patients. It may seem like Biomimetic Dentistry sprouted up overnight, but Dr. Alleman’s work in the field of biomimetic restorative dentistry has roots that go back several decades.