DrZohaib

06/06/2025

In smaller cases or when modifying existing wax-ups, a hybrid approach can shine.

🦷 Digital scan to lab → Manual wax-up for finesse
🦷 Printed model → Hand-detailed surface anatomy

Why go hybrid?
✌🏻 You need tactile control for a subtle case
✌🏻 You want to adjust chairside in limited time

It’s not about being anti-digital or anti-analogue. It’s about using the right tool for the job.

Reflection: Hybrid workflows can offer the best of both in certain situations — when digital alone needs a more human touch. For everything else, there is digital.

04/06/2025

Let’s be clear: digital is now the standard. And for injection moulding, it’s a game changer.

Here’s why:
✌🏻 Faster communication with the lab
✌🏻 Reproducible wax-ups with screenshots and 3D views
✌🏻 Easier to modify wax ups
✌🏻 Alternate tooth stents possible
✌🏻 Print models with any combination of wax up units

Whether it’s a full-arch wear case or 2 peg laterals — the digital workflow gives you:
- Clean data capture
- Efficient diagnostics
- Streamlined wax-ups and stents

Analogue’s still around. But the modern restorative workflow? It starts with a scanner.

Reflection: The best work is built on great planning — and digital makes that more accessible than ever.

02/06/2025

THE ANALOGUE EXCEPTION

Analogue workflows in injection moulding still exist — but let’s not romanticise them.

We’re talking:
- Alginate or silicone impressions
- Gypsum models
- Manual wax-ups

They still work— but usually used if you don’t have a scanner. Otherwise, they slow everything down and create more steps for error. For me, they’re now reserved for:
✌🏻 Scanner failures
✌🏻 Select small cases needing a limited treatment without digital lab overhead

Digital isn’t just ‘modern’. It’s faster, more verifiable, and more scalable.

Reflection: Analogue has a place. But we need to be honest — digital is the default for a reason.

23/04/2025

So it’s clear I don’t use the Lucia jig just to ‘relax the jaw.’
Instead, I use it to lay the foundation for everything that follows.
Once CR is verified, that’s when the real treatment planning begins — and this small acrylic jig becomes the silent co-author of the case.
Here’s how I weave it into my workflow:
🦷 Pre-op bite records — captured after deprogramming for accurate mounting
🦷 CR mounting of diagnostic casts — to establish a stable occlusal reference
🦷 Wax-up planning — ensuring harmony with the patient’s centric relation
🦷 Provisionalisation — guided by verified occlusal position
🦷 Final restorations — built on repeatable, functional stability
✌🏻 KEY POINTS:
✔ CR is not just for full-mouth rehabs — use it in any case where occlusion will shift
✔ The Lucia jig adds minimal time but maximum clarity
✔ Avoids guesswork, especially in parafunctional or worn dentitions
From a simple jig to a stable, aesthetic, long-term result — it’s all one journey.
And like all great journeys, it starts with the right map.

16/04/2025

A new occlusion is only as good as the planning behind it.

The Lucia jig isn’t just for full rehabs though. I use it in cases of parafunction, TMJ symptoms, or occlusal instability.

Here’s how:
🦷 Fabricated in acrylic or composite resin
🦷 Fits over upper anteriors, discludes posteriors
🦷 Patient wears it for 10–20 mins to deprogram
🦷 CR record captured with bite registration once relaxed

It’s the difference between guessing and knowing — especially when planning larger cases.

Patients often feel a release they didn’t even know they needed. And that makes all the difference when restoring harmony.

In the final part, I’ll show how this integrates into restorative workflows.



14/04/2025

💡Before you start… ask yourself: are the muscles even on the same page?

So many problems aren’t about the teeth — they’re about the muscles.

Enter: the Lucia jig.

Originally designed as a deprogramming tool, the Lucia jig helps relax the lateral pterygoid muscle and allows for a reproducible centric relation record.

✌🏻 Quick benefits:
🦷 Muscle deprogramming within minutes
🦷 Stable reference point for CR mounting
🦷 Useful for full mouth rehabs or complex diagnostic workups

It’s small, it’s simple, and it’s often overlooked — but in complex cases, it’s a game-changer.

Next up — how I use the Lucia jig chairside to guide occlusal planning.



23/03/2025

**Small teeth, big impact**
Sometimes, the final touches make all the difference — and peg laterals are a classic example.
This lovely case was referred to me post-orthodontics to restore the two peg lateral incisors and complete the smile. Before reaching for a bur, we began with an **intraoral mock-up** using unbonded composite — a quick, reversible way to visualise form, proportions, and how the final result would sit within the new arch.
Once the patient and I were happy with the proposed contours, we moved on to definitive treatment:
🦷 **Rubber dam** for clean, isolated working field (essential for predictable bonding).
🦷 **Layered composite technique** to mimic enamel and dentine — vital for a seamless blend.
🦷 **Careful shade matching** with the adjacent teeth — a challenge with translucent enamel and young dentition.
🦷 **Surface texture** tailored to age — subtle, natural, and light-reflective.
The aim wasn’t to make these teeth stand out — it was to make them belong.
The best cosmetic dentistry is the kind that goes unnoticed (my personal opinion!). This case was tricky due to the bonded palatal retainer. I managed it by using some resin to create rubber dam stoppers in the central incisors.

For rubber dam skills, I learnt from and her one day ISOL8 course.

05/02/2025

✨ Rebuilding smiles, one layer at a time! ✨ Managing toothwear isn’t just about restoring teeth — it’s about harmonising function, aesthetics, and facial proportions. Using facially generated treatment planning and the precision of the injection moulding technique, we recreate natural contours, textures, and translucency for seamless, long-lasting results. 🔬🦷

A smile that looks great, feels great, and lasts—because dentistry should be as much about art as it is about science.

Visit www.prosthoworks.co.uk to learn how you can help your patients too.
✨

04/12/2024

Back to work after an incredible week with all the Bio-Emulators. Layered injection moulding for the worn dentition.

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30/09/2024

A case of pure attritional tooth wear treated with injectable resin. Wear rather than fracture of the resin shows the resistance of this latest generation of composite resins to high mechanical loads.

04/09/2024

15/02/2024