Dr McCrea's blog

I’d like to thank Dr. Erik Garcia for keeping after me until I agreed to go on a mission trip with the Medical Missionaries of Devine Mercy. It was a wonderful experience and a chance to give back a little. Every November a  group from St. Laurence Catholic Church in Sugar Land makes their annual trip to Laredo and in cooperation with San Luis Rey Church and Catholic Charities provides dental, vision and medical services for those in need in Laredo.

This week marks the second anniversary of placing my very first dental implant. In November 2014 I went to Bessemer Alabama for a week of training at the Alabama Implant Education Institute. The course focused on protocols for safe, successful implant placement. While there, I had the opportunity to place multiple implants under the supervision of experienced doctors.

In order to provide the best implant services possible we have upgraded our digital panoramic x-ray unit (the wrap around x-ray in the hall) to a newer unit that takes a digital panoramic x-ray, digital cephalometric x-rays (for orthodontics), and cone beam images for dental implants.

I just returned from session 2 of the Comprehensive Implant Residency in Bessemer Alabama. As always Dr. McCracken was teaching us about achieving predictable, consistent results. This weekend we were reviewing his protocol for the mandible (lower jaw). Folks that are wearing lower dentures know what a huge challenge not having your lower teeth anchored can be. Almost anyone you know well enough to talk to about their dentures with, will confirm that their upper denture does “ok”, but their lower denture is frustrating.