Composite materials in dentistry have come of age during my career. When I was at Case Western Reserve Dental School in Cleveland we had Adaptic, a two-part material that we mixed and used in the anterior to minimize the effect on color and light that was experienced with gold foil placement, gold foil being the first choice of Dr. Skippy Clark, our operative god at Case. We did a lot of gold foil in those days, and they were (and are) excellent and long-lasting restorations. They just didn't look very esthetic in some places.
Gregg Kinzer and I recently had an opportunity to increase our knowledge and experiences with composite when Buddy Mopper visited the Spear campus and spent half a day sharing with us what he has learned in a long history of bringing composites into regular use in dentistry. He was one of the early pioneers in making it the primary rather than the secondary choice for operative procedures. Buddy is from Chicago, so he told us that he was just escaping a few days of Windy City winter, but in reality he made the trip to Scottsdale specifically to share with us his knowledge and experiences with composite materials and restorations.
I learned a lot of history and I better understand how we got to where are today, and since Buddy has evolved as the materials have changed, I was reinforced in my understanding of the state of the composite art NOW. He reintroduced me to the benefits of Microfills in specific applications, and showed us how he's made use of them in a wide range of clinical procedures. More importantly for me, I had the opportunity to meet a very special man whose passion and excitement for dentistry has done nothing but grow, and at 75 years young his energy was contagious.
He left us to travel back to the Windy City winter because he had a full day with patients the next day!
Thank you, Buddy!