The Pankey Institute

Coming to the Pankey Institute is a special experience. From our state-of-the-art educational center to our deluxe labs, from the friendly staff to the caring faculty, and from our comfortable lodges to the beauty of Key Biscayne, the Institute is better than you dreamed.

Teaching advanced dental skills means we need to have the latest laboratories and equipment. In addition to our elegant presentation halls with advanced audio-visual technology, we have two labs and a large clinic. The Key Biscayne facility is stocked with the highest-quality KaVo equipment, including articulators and handpieces, and our labs are a pleasure to work in.

Closed-circuit TV systems and high-tech viewing screens at lab stations allow instructors to show detailed procedures at the front of the lab, while giving everyone a front-row seat. The instructor's document camera can focus on an x-ray, a model or overhead notes. A dome camera located above the instructor allows for further demonstrations. Any data or pictures from the instructor's computer or laptop can instantly be shown to everyone in the lab.

Each lab bench can be converted to an operatory, allowing clinical and lab procedures to be done at the same place simply by adding or removing the lifelike mannequin. Each bench also contains a convenient-to-use vacuum, handpieces and footpedal controls. Light curing units for com¬posites are available at lab benches, and a larger Triad light curing machine is also available.

In the second floor lab, there are five units for polishing appliances, along with two units for trimming models and a steam cleaner. Sterilizing units and handpiece lubricators are located in both the second and first floor labs.

Our mannequins, which can be converted for use by both right- and left-handed people, have been designed to closely replicate the human head and jaw. Removable models allow instructors to demonstrate different types of oral health problems. A convenient vacuum connects from the mannequin to the vacuum unit, to quickly sweep away particles from grinding.

With a capacity for 24 downstairs and 26 upstairs, our labs are big enough to accommodate full classes of students, but intimate enough to allow for real learning and collaboration.

The clinic is where the students do reversible procedures on each other, such as exams and bite splint therapy, and irreversible procedures on very lifelike mannequins that adapt to the clinic chair.