Dr. Tuttle was featured as part of the Dental Toolbox Genius Summit addressing TuttleNumbNow. 

The 2023 Dental Summit "reignites you to take practical steps to energize and make dentistry fun and rewarding." 

Registration is FREE and hosted by Dr. Asma Shareef. 

Click the link here to register and to get reminders! 

Lecture will be available Nov 11th at 10:00am CST.

Dental Genius Summit Revolutionizing Dental Anesthesia: A Conversation with Dr. Tuttle

Introduction

Welcome to our latest podcast episode for Dental Genius Summit, where we delve into groundbreaking developments in dental anesthesia. Today, we are thrilled to have Dr. Tuttle with us to discuss his innovative anesthetic technique that has spread across the US and 26 other countries.

Dr. Asma Shareef: Hi, Dr. Tuttle. We are super excited to have you among us. Can you share with us the pivotal moment that led to your amazing discovery?

Dr. Tuttle: Well, this is very exciting. Thanks for this opportunity to share.

Desperation leads to supplication, which leads to inspiration, and then innovation."

The way I call it is; out of desperation, I looked for supplication, which is prayer, which lead to inspiration, which is a light or knowledge (something new), which lead to innovation.

So that's a little phrase I came up with to describe my situation.

I couldn't get somebody numb.

We had a very busy practice where almost every patient needed a lot of dental work. I couldn't get a person numb and it basically held the office hostage.

Eureka Moment

As we're trying to get the schedule done for the day, and I heard about X-tips, and I used them in the past for desperate rescue situations.

I went to the closet to get one, and there wasn't one. X-tips were on back order, so I had to get the patient numb.

I knew where the X-tip goes, and I knew that intraosseous is what the endodontists used to get people numb.

I took my 30 gauge needle, tried to get it in, and then through a series of angulation changes, manipulations, I got the needle through, and I had that Eureka moment where the patient got instant relief from an intraosseous injection and all the other injections that didn't work.

I thought, why don't I just start with an intraosseous injection, if that one works the best and use the least amount of anesthetic and is the least risky?

So I started, from that moment on, to just give intraosseous injections in lieu of an IA block, and the patients were super happy with it.

And then that led to the development... I would test different needles, different techniques, and I came up with the ultimate numbing system, or technique, to where you don't have to wait for the patient to get numb. you can instantly “Set down the syringe, pick up the drill”, and start working on a patient and have full confidence that you can get a patient numb.

Patient Benefits

Dr. Asma Shareef: Wow, that's amazing. That's actually what dentists are looking for, I believe, in terms of anesthetizing many patients. Wonderful. So that leads to my next question. Doctor, regarding patient benefits. Would you highlight some of the main benefits for patients receiving this method of anesthetic technique?

Dr. Tuttle:

“My practice started growing with every single dental injection.”

The key patient benefits are:

#1 They’re finally getting numb. Effective numbing for patients who previously struggled with anesthesia. Patients that have never been numb before, we're getting them numb.

#2 Reduced amount of anesthetic required, making it faster and more cost-effective.

#3 Enhanced safety, with no risks of numb lips or tongues, and avoidance of more severe complications associated with traditional methods. We know that from IA block, people can have nerve damage, blindness. I mean, there's lots of crazy things that normally don't happen, but they can happen, and they do happen. Broken needles deep in tissue.

But with this technique, it's safer, cheaper, faster.

Dr. Tuttle:  After seeing the benefits, I started talking to the leading researchers, manufacturers, and educators when I went to my son's graduation from dental school. I had been doing this from 2003 to 2015, when my son was graduating from dental school, I decided to teach him…

Patients can get numb and get something done on one side and then go right to work or go to lunch without a numb lip or a numb tongue. They can also get all their work done in all four quadrants, not just working on half a mouth.

It's magic.

Benefits for Dental Practitioners

Dr. Asma Shareef: Wow. It's magical. Of course, yes. Less numbing. It's a big benefit. Patients hate to get numb, and they have to be so careful drinking their coffee or drinks. So, finally, I would like to ask Dr. Tuttle, what benefits are in store for our dental colleagues, what benefits they will achieve in terms of performance. Like you mentioned, it's faster if you can throw some light for dental colleagues. That's what's in store for them in using this technique.

Dr. Tuttle:  So, generally, we have textbooks for local anesthesia, we have textbooks you have to read through the research.

And what I give is basically a cookbook.

It's a simple step by step protocol of what injection to give first, what injection to give next. And instead of giving multiple cartridges, we go pinpoint, and we custom cater it to a patient so dental colleagues will know exactly what injection to use, what needle to use, how much to give, the dose, the site, and what to do.

Just progress right through what we call our ten shot protocol, which is a pyramid, where everyone else starts at the bottom of the pyramid with an IA block, and then they give a long buckle or an infiltration, and then they'll give a periodontal ligament injection, and then they'll give intra osseous or interpupil. We go the opposite. We start with intraosseous, so they'll know exactly what to do in a cookbook fashion. Whereas if they're difficult to numb, you start here with carbocaine. If they're just a regular patient, you start here. If they have periodontal disease and pocketing. You start here. So it'll give them a step by step instruction.

The Tesla of Syringes

Dr. Tuttle: Included with the instructional kit is a new syringe.

I like to call it the new Tesla of syringes.

It's an incremental syringe.

They'll get also the TNN Needle Guide, which was invented and developed by me and Septodont to responsibly bend and recap a needle.

It comes in these nice little packages. Anyone that orders the guide off of this Dental Summit meeting, this is one of the benefits, will get a free box of needle guides, which is 100 intra osseous applications.  Generally if you’re ordering x-tip  100 applications is $10 each.

The TNN needle guides sell for $35.

So anyone that orders a kit will get a box of these TNN needle guides which add stability, safety, visibility, range of motion, angle of entry, and it really facilitates you getting that needle inside the proper location.

Dr. Asma Shareef: I see, it's been very clearly indicated in your manuals, so I would like the audience to as well know that you're offering free gifts and your link of free gifts will be listed on the website. They can click that and enter your gift page, so that way they can access. So that's for audience for them to know.

Dr. Asma Shareef: So it has been really wonderful knowing the benefits of this amazing technique, Doctor, and I'm sure many dentists will avail and get the benefits that this revolutionary technique has to offer. And we are really very thankful for your great contribution to this profession. And I'm sure dentists who hate to give inferior alveolar nerve blocks are mandible, and I know many struggle with that aspect and they must really feel very happy to know that they can eliminate the challenge with this technique.

And I'm sure you can throw some light on that that many dentists are able to avoid or totally do away with the mandibular inferior alveolar nerve block, right?

Is that right?

Dr. Tuttle: Yeah, so I still use the IA block when I'm doing wisdom teeth or things like that. I will give the block as kind of a going away present, but since I can numb it instantly, I can do a capsuler injection which is taught.

So this is a kit instead of having to attend a seminar so we can spread this throughout the whole world, you order the kit. It has videos.

It has nine videos for your staff, for you, four minutes on lower second molars, five minutes on anterior.

So it's just very concise and very explicit so that there aren't a lot of questions.

We've received endorsements from a lot of the top educators saying this is the safest, best way to create happy patients, and happy patients are less litigious.

We've been hired by DSOs to come and train all their dentists in the DSOS because they know it's going to save them money and they're going to do more dentistry.

So it's super exciting and I highly recommend it. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Asma Shareef: Wonderful. Thank you again, Dr. Tattle, and we wish you all the best, and we are so happy to have your contributions for this profession. Great, noble work you undertook. Thank you very much.