Website Review - Style Italiano
Introduction
For all of you aspiring and current dental students out there this website is a great taste of what is possible at the cutting edge of aesthetic and conservative dentistry.
Link to Website - www.styleitaliano.org
Style Italiano was established by Dr Walter Devoto and Prof. Angelo Putignano - experts in the field of aesthetic and conservative dentistry.
Their overriding philosophies are:
Feasibility – Simplicity is key in dentistry - fewest steps with the greatest return. For example Style Italiano suggest a two shade anterior composite technique utilising one dentine and enamel shade, this is realistic and achievable for most practitioners
Teachability – The Style Italiano team spend much of their time running workshops and practical courses and In light of this the techniques they teach must be within the reach of the average dentist in a short time frame.
Repeatability – In a similar vein to the other philosophies this focuses on the fact that techniques they describe should be possible for all dentists, their motto is “You can do what we can do”
First Impressions
One of the most striking things is a real sense of refinement and attention to detail, hardly surprising given the legendary Italian connection with style. The website is well set out and designed, it’s easy to navigate and boasts an attractive colour palate. The English version has a few spelling and translation errors but nothing which is bad enough to detract from the content. The community and cases sections take a while to load in my browser - likely due to many large picture files in the articles, a slight niggle in what is an otherwise sleek operation.
The Style Italiano Shop
Browsing through I spotted some great looking dental accessories and a number of genuinely inventive tools. Dentistry is frequently driven by aesthetics and I think that we often tend to gravitate toward stylish looking bits of kit. Style Italiano obviously realise this and they’re certainly capitalizing upon it!
This Smile Line bur stand and storage cabinet are two examples which caught my eye. Both are simple and functional items which have been turned into miniature works of art (with the price tag to match I might add - €120). The minimalist style incorporating brushed aluminium and sleek lines remind me of an apple product (a well proven formula if ever there was one) and it’s this type of aesthetic which I think is so appealing - beauty in simplicity.
I’m a while away from graduation and owning my own dental kit but it’s exciting to catch a glimpse of what is out there. I find it encouraging that there’s still some room for a bit of beauty and style in the everyday equipment we all use, who knows…perhaps I’ll be able to afford some of it one day!
I previously alluded to a couple of new and innovative products on offer in the Style Italiano shop and this is one of my favourites:
The Smile capture (Pictured Left) from Smile Line is a device designed to make clinical photography more accessible by allowing you to take shots on your smart phone. This isn’t the gold standard by any means but it certainly offers quick oral photography at a lower cost to buying a dedicated DSLR.
The Smile Lite (Pictured Below) is an aid to effective colour matching. It aims to replicate natural daylight and comes with a cross polarizing filter - infinitely useful when trying to eliminate spectral reflection that can make colour matching more difficult.
If you're wondering why on earth you might actually need a cross polarizing filter I’ve included a picture below to show the difference. Unwanted reflections have been eliminated allowing you to see the true chroma of the teeth and (hopefully) make a more accurate assessment of the tooth shade.
Despite some of the great products on show it’s hard to ignore the price tags. They say ‘you get what you pay for’ and maybe that's true. However, when it comes to the ‘Hold’ on Bag’ I’m just not sure that I could stomach €44 for what is essentially a little black beanbag that has 'Smile Line' embossed along the side. (Although the description of its possible uses is very convincing!)
"Very comforatble and ergonomic for the positioning of models or for photo shooting"
The Style Italiano community
The best aspect of this website in my view is the “Community Cases” section where dentists from around the world submit case studies of their work. There are some wonderfully ingenious techniques on show. As well as being extremely interesting they’re a great resource to pick up creative tips and techniques. From class IV composite buildups to placement of rubber dams in tricky situations. A small selection of my personal favourites are linked below:
Great example of composite colour matching and a beautiful Class IV buildup:-
www.styleitaliano.org/community-case-pedro-samoes-3
Spot the restoration! This is some fantastic work on show from dentist Pedro Samoes, see exactly how he achieved this result in the full article.
Accessible dental photography on your phone with the Smile Capture:-
www.styleitaliano.org/smile-capture
This article tells us why the smile capture exists, what role it performs in the surgery and how it can be used to effectively record simple, if not medicolegal quality photographs of your patient quickly and easily with a smart phone.
Novel use of orthodontic elastics to enhance rubber dam isolation:-
www.styleitaliano.org/community-case-pablo-santoro
Have you ever had a moment when your rubber dam just won’t sit in the right position? I know I certainly have, there’s few things more irritating than trying to work in a confined space when the dam keeps riding up the tooth. Dr. Pablo Santoro offers us the possibility of salvation from rubber dam woes in this great little article.
Conclusion
In closing this is really a great resource for those students who already have the basics of operative dentistry nailed down and want to make things a bit easier for themselves or start adapting their techniques and learn new and innovative ways of working, to achieve better results. Having said that, pre-clinical students can also learn a lot from the content of this website, starting early and familiarising youself with how things work and the technical challanges that dentists face when treating patients is always going to help when you come to have your own patients. By reading through this website you might even be able to solve a few of those problems before they have a chance to slow you down!
Thanks for reading guys,
Bye for now.
Link to Website - www.styleitaliano.org
