After completing my undergraduate work at Trinity, I was accepted at all three Texas dental schools. I chose The University of Texas Heath Science Center Dental School, San Antonio. This dental school has been consistently ranked the number one dental education center in the United States. My four years flew by and my love affair with dentistry flourished.
Following graduation from dental school in 1997, Dr. Tasch and I opened our restorative practice here in Austin. Quality, not quantity has always been our goal.
In 2006, I married Sherri. I met her within a few weeks of moving to Austin in 1997 and she had been my full time honey since that time. We have been living with our dogs in NW Austin since then and love our canine children more than anything!
I recently completed the requirements for Fellowship with the Academy of General Dentistry and received the award in Philadelphia. Attaining Fellowship is a rigorous process that requires five years of membership in the AGD, over 500 hours of continuing education, and passing a certification exam.
Outside dentistry, I enjoy a wide variety of interests. I still fabricate wood projects in my shop, and I spend several days each week training my Labrador Retrievers, Zoe and Boo, and and their new tiny brother, Kirby (Teacup Yorkie) provides endless hours of comic relief. Sherri and I are into scuba diving and underwater photography which fill our vacations with fun and adventure.
Dentistry has always been the goal. I invite you to come and share my enthusiasm about all the great techniques at our disposal to reconstruct a healthy, drop dead gorgeous smile!
Best Regards,
Mike Meek, DDS
Dr. Meek's Continuing Education Blog
Bringing you the latest from my dental education endeavours!
Dr. Steve Widner and I popped over to Tampa, FL last week to spend two days digesting the material presented by the Academy of Osseointegration at their annual meeting. This is a place where the heavy hitters in the implant community come together to show their hardware and present research that has been in the making for sometimes up to 15 years. We spent Thursday morning in corporate forums looking at the current offerings from companies like Nobel Biocare, Straumann, Zimmer, and Dentsply. Lunch came and went and with Starbucks in hand, I managed another four hour general assembly presentation on the everything from fifteen year survival rates on dental implants to tissue stability studies related to facial plate thickness over implants. Basically, technical and surgical data to help further develop my point of view as a restorative dentist. Two days of REAL continuing education. I shot up to Chicago last Thursday with Dr. Steve Widner to attend what I believe was some of the best lectures on the current state of high tech dental implant techniques and restorative procedures. Seriously, this was outstanding material that reminded me of how remarkable the reconstructive care we are offering in cooperation with Dr. Widner really is. I also realized that we are rapidly moving towards digital restorations in conjunction with the digital imaging we are already doing with our case planning thanks to 3D Cone Beam CT technology. Below are some photos I took with my iPad show a brief glimpse of the sort of things we listened to at this fantastic research based meeting. Thank you Dr. Widner for making this meeting available to me, the restorative dentist!Back to School-Two days with the Academy of Osseointegration
We did not see much new from the AAOMS meeting we enjoyed so very much last December, but it was good to go and spend time reviewing the current state of CAD/CAM digital dentistry as that is the next step we are going to be taking here at 38th Street Dental.Dr. Meek Presents at a Bicon Meeting
I am very excited about this implant system. Bicon has developed a restorative protocol that is simple and appears in both research and my wet fingered practice to deliver consitent and stable results that will likely function for many many years to come. These dental implants are the smallest on the market and are applicable to many dental situations where other systems will not work. If you are reading this, have missing teeth, want teeth, but are afraid of what you have heard about dental implants, please take a moment to consider coming and talking to me about this great system.
I'm off to Tampa, Florida next week to the Academy of Osseointegration meeting to continue feeding my passion for dental implants.
Best regards,
Dr. M
Medical Talk Tuesday
Coming up in the next two months are the Academy of Osseointegration Meeting in March and another trip to Boston to train at the Bicon World Headquarters. Stay tuned!American Association of Oral and Maxilofacial Surgeons Dental implant Meeting
Bicon Dental Implant for Austin Cyclist
Bicon Dental Implants Produce Natural Lower Front Teeth for Austin Cyclist
As you may know from reading my blog, Bicon Dental Implants are becoming a bigger and bigger portion of my practice. I wanted to share this case since I have not shown off many Bicon dental implant cases to date. Yale, a long time patient here at 38th Street Dental, showed up one day with broken lower front teeth. No, he did not have a biking accident. Instead, his roots had been damaged by a process called external resorption. In the radiograph shown below, you can see the holes in the roots of two of the lower front teeth. This is not a decay process, but a reactive process that we see very commonly in daily practice. Check out the radiograph:
The problem with external respiration is that we are unable to fix the damage caused by osteoclasts in the periodontal ligament and the only choice is to remove the teeth and place dental implants. With Bicon dental implants, this is a very plausible scenario. So in the photo below, you can see his two Bicon dental implants along with the restorations seated on them. These photos were taken about six weeks after placement and demonstrate how nicely we can help a patient recover from the devastating effects of external respiration. Congratulations Yale! Your smile looks great!
