Dr Fotios Angelis, Specialist Prosthodontist

Role: Specialist prosthodontist

Qualifications: BDSc (Hons), University of Melbourne (2005); DClinDent (Prosthodontics), University of Melbourne (2014)

Registration: Registered dentist with specialist registration in prosthodontics, DEN0001023799

This is a specialist registration. Only a dentist holding specialist registration in a recognised specialty may use its title under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. Verify free on the AHPRA public register at ahpra.gov.au. The specialty page is Specialist Prosthodontists; the other specialists here are listed on Dentists and Registered Specialists and under Specialist Care.

What specialist registration actually requires

Prosthodontics is one of the thirteen dental specialties recognised in Australia. The Dental Board of Australia's own wording is that “there are 13 dental specialties in Australia which are approved by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council”. The list is fixed, and a title that is not on it is not a specialty, however often it appears in advertising.

The university qualification is not the whole requirement. The Board's specialist registration standard requires an applicant to have “completed a minimum of two years general dental practice” — which “may be achieved by experience outside Australia, subject to assessment and approval by the Board” — and to have “met all other requirements for general registration as a dentist”. A specialist is a dentist first and remains one; specialist registration is added to general registration, not substituted for it.

You do not have to take this page's word for any of it. Ahpra “publishes an online register of all dental practitioners that provides the profession and the public with up-to-date information about a dental practitioner's registration status”, and that register “also includes details of the specialty or specialties for dentists who hold specialist registration”. Search the name at ahpra.gov.au and read the profession and specialty fields. It is free, it takes under a minute, and it is the only authoritative answer.

(Source for this section: Dental Board of Australia, Specialist Registration — dentalboard.gov.au.)

Background

Dr Fotios Angelis graduated with honours in dentistry from the University of Melbourne in 2005. He then spent six years in private general practice in Melbourne.

He returned to the University of Melbourne for specialist training and was awarded a Doctor of Clinical Dentistry in Prosthodontics in 2014.

What a prosthodontist does

Prosthodontics is the specialty concerned with restoring and replacing teeth. The pathway is a dental degree, general practice experience, a three-year full-time Doctor of Clinical Dentistry or equivalent in prosthodontics, then specialist registration. See Why would I need to see a dental specialist?

Scope covers crowns, bridges, veneers, inlays and onlays; partial and complete dentures; implant restoration and implant treatment planning; full-mouth rehabilitation; and occlusion — diagnosing and managing bite problems and tooth wear.

For the background: What does restorative dentistry involve?, What types of dental crowns are available? and What are the different types of dentures (partial vs full vs implant retained, metal vs plastic)?

Tooth wear: the problem this specialty exists for

Most people think of a prosthodontist as the person who makes crowns. The harder and more valuable part of the work is diagnosing why the teeth failed — because rebuilding without addressing the cause reproduces the failure, usually within a few years and at full cost.

There are three mechanisms of tooth wear, they look different, and they are managed differently.

1. Erosion — chemical. Acid dissolves enamel directly. No bacteria, no sugar needed. Sources are dietary (soft drinks including sugar-free, sports and energy drinks, citrus, wine, kombucha, fruit and herbal teas, cider vinegar) or intrinsic (reflux, vomiting, eating disorders). Intrinsic erosion typically shows on the inner surfaces of the upper front teeth, and dentists are often the first to notice it. Enamel does not grow back. See What is dental erosion and how is it addressed?, I've heard a lot about acid wear. What is this and how can I avoid it?, How does acidic food affect your teeth?, What impact does wine have on my teeth?, Are sugar free soft drinks better for my teeth than regular soft drinks? and What are sports drinks really doing to your teeth?

2. Attrition — tooth against tooth. Grinding and clenching. Produces flat, shiny matching wear facets, chipped incisal edges, and cracked teeth. Often driven by stress, disturbed sleep, some medications, alcohol and stimulants — and there is a recognised association with obstructive sleep apnoea, which is a medical diagnosis made on a sleep study. See TMD and Teeth Grinding, Snoring and Sleep Apnoea, What is bruxism and how is it managed?, Night Time Tooth Grinding/Clenching, How can I stop grinding my teeth when I sleep? and Seven ways stress can affect your mouth

3. Abrasion — something else against the tooth. Aggressive brushing with a hard brush or abrasive paste, and habits such as holding objects between the teeth. See Over brushing: What can it do to my teeth? and How much pressure should I apply when brushing my teeth?

Most significant wear is a combination, and the combination matters: acid-softened enamel plus vigorous brushing removes far more than either alone. See If enamel is the hardest substance in the body, why do teeth break?

Which is why the first appointment in a large case is diagnostic, not constructive. Diet history, reflux history, sleep and snoring, medications, stress, brushing habit, and an assessment of the bite. A rebuild placed over uncontrolled acid or uncontrolled grinding will fail — and the new ceramic will chip the same way the enamel did. On the appliance side of control, see What kind of mouth guard should I use? and Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy.

What full-mouth rehabilitation actually involves

1. Establish the cause and control it. Diet, reflux management with a GP, a splint, treating gum disease. This stage is not optional and it is not billable glamour.
2. Records and planning — photographs, radiographs, digital scans, mounted models, and a diagnostic wax-up showing the proposed result before anything is prepared. See Our Technology and the in-house laboratory.
3. A trial phase — temporary restorations worn to test the bite, appearance, speech and function. This is where problems should be found. Shortening it to save time is a false economy. See Mock-up Reveal and The Mock-Up Reveal: Why You Should See Your New Smile Before Any Treatment Begins
4. Construction and fitting, across several appointments.
5. Maintenance — ongoing review, and commonly a night guard, worn indefinitely. See Dental Cleans and Hygienists.

On ‘raising the bite’: severe wear can shorten the face height, and rebuilding often involves restoring it. That is a significant, largely irreversible decision, and it is exactly why the trial phase exists — you live with the proposed new bite in temporary form before it is committed to in ceramic. Cases on this scale are handled under Complex Dentistry and Fix My Teeth; on the co-ordination involved, see Complex Dental Cases: What Happens When Multiple Specialists Need to Collaborate.

What the published outcome evidence shows

The useful framing for any reconstruction is service life and maintenance, not success. Independent figures, attributed — and note what each one actually measures:

• Implant-supported fixed bridgework. The ITI consensus statements report that “the cumulative survival rate of oral implants supporting FPDs was 95.4% after 5 years of function and 92.8% after 10 years of function” (ITI Academy, Implant Survival and Complications).
• Survival is not the same as trouble-free. The same consensus records that “FPDs without any biologic or technical complications were encountered in 61.3% of patients after 5 years” — so on those figures close to two patients in five had something go wrong with the reconstruction within five years even where the implants themselves survived. Chipped ceramic, loose or fractured screws and peri-implant inflammation are the usual causes. The consensus itself adds the caveat that “data on the absence of complications were available from only 4 of the 21 cohort studies”, so treat it as an indication rather than a precise rate.
• At the level of the implant itself, a registry analysis of 158,824 implants reported that “the overall survival rate was 97.79%, with a total failure rate of 2.21%”, and that “failures within the first year accounted for 1.59% of cases” (PMC, Dental Implant Survival Rates).

These are population figures drawn from particular cohorts and particular implant systems, several of which are no longer sold. They do not predict any individual result. They are useful for one purpose: setting the expectation that a large reconstruction is a maintained thing rather than a finished one. Ask what the review interval is, what the predictable repairs are, and who does them. See Dental Implants and Understanding Your Treatment.

Common questions

What is a specialist prosthodontist?

A prosthodontist is a dentist with recognised specialist registration in prosthodontics and additional training in complex restorative and replacement treatment. Specialist status can be verified on the AHPRA public register.

Do I need a referral to see Dr Fotios Angelis?

Patients can generally contact the practice directly, although a referral is useful when another practitioner has a specific question or can provide relevant records and treatment history.

When is a prosthodontic opinion useful?

It can help with extensive tooth wear, complex crowns or bridges, implants, dentures, full-mouth rehabilitation, previous restorative failure, difficult aesthetic or bite decisions, and uncertainty about whether teeth are restorable.

What does full-mouth rehabilitation involve?

It is a coordinated plan to restore function and structure across many teeth, sometimes involving several specialties and staged provisional treatment. It does not mean every tooth automatically needs a crown.

Does specialist treatment guarantee that restorations will last?

No. Specialist training informs diagnosis and planning, but tooth structure, gum and bone support, bite, grinding, materials, maintenance and disease risk still affect outcomes.

What maintenance should I expect after a large rebuild?

Maintenance may include tailored daily cleaning, professional reviews, management of grinding, repair of components and eventual replacement. Ask what the plan is likely to require in ten and twenty years and who can provide it.

Is a second opinion reasonable before major restorative treatment?

Yes. Major rehabilitation is expensive and often irreversible. Request the records, diagnosis, alternatives, staged costs and prognosis so another suitably qualified practitioner can give an informed opinion.

Three titles that are frequently confused

• Prosthodontist — registered dentist with specialist registration in prosthodontics. Diagnoses, plans and treats.
• Dental prosthetist — separately registered (ADP prefix); may make and fit full dentures and mouthguards directly for the public. Does not treat natural teeth.
• Dental technician — not registered at all. Constructs appliances in a laboratory from a prescription; no patient contact.

And ‘cosmetic dentist’ is not a specialty. There are thirteen recognised dental specialties, and the register names them.

The standards behind the registration

Specialist registration sits on top of general registration, and both are governed by the Dental Board of Australia's registration standards. Each carries a published date of effect, which is worth knowing if you ever need to establish what applied and when:

• Scope of practice — in effect 1 July 2020. It “requires dental practitioners to practise within the scope of their education, training, and competence at all times”. This is the standard that makes the boundary of a practitioner's scope a regulatory matter rather than a matter of preference.
• Continuing professional development — 1 December 2015
• Recency of practice — 1 December 2015
• Professional indemnity insurance arrangements — 1 July 2016
• English language skills — 18 March 2025
• Criminal history — 15 July 2026
• Specialist registration standard — 1 July 2010, with the current list of recognised specialties, related specialist titles and definitions in effect from 1 October 2017

(Source: Dental Board of Australia, Registration standards — dentalboard.gov.au.) Conditions, undertakings and reprimands are recorded on the public register alongside the registration itself.

Related pages: Specialist Prosthodontists, Complex Dentistry, TMD & Teeth Grinding, Dental Crowns, Our Team.

Practical details

Dr Angelis's registration and specialty can be verified free on the AHPRA public register at ahpra.gov.au. For consultation or referral, see Contact Us.

Smile Solutions, Level 1, 220 Collins Street, Manchester Unity Building, Melbourne VIC 3000. Phone 13 13 96, or theteam@smilesolutions.com.au. Monday–Friday 8.00am–6.00pm, Saturday 8.30am–1.30pm, Sunday by appointment. Location and directions.

This page records qualifications and career history as published by the practice. General information only — it is not a diagnosis, a treatment plan or a promise of any particular clinical outcome. Restoration survival varies widely with the individual case. Practitioner availability changes; confirm when booking.

Smile Solutions trades under ABN 28 193 514 103.