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Inside Dentistry
June 2016
Volume 12, Issue 6

In general, however, collaborative care is most effective when it is built around the patient experience, says Filippo Impieri, vice president of marketing, North America, for KaVo Kerr Group, Dental Technologies. Facilitating collaborative analysis and decision-making are technologies such as low-radiation CBCT [cone-beam computed tomography] units, which produce scans that can provide highly accurate 3D images of a patient’s anatomy. For implant dentistry, the data a CBCT scan provides about available bone and other aspects of the patient’s jaw and anatomical limitations can be easily enhanced, shared, and are more easily understood by patients, Impieri explains. This ultimately leads to smarter treatment planning, greater precision, and results that are better for the patient. “Just as important as any of the technological advances in CBCT is the way those advances facilitate communication with team members, specialists, and patients, providing a common language for treatment planning and care,” he says.

Do You Have the Technology for Implant Dentistry?

Facilitating efficient and timely multispecialty team collaborations are technologies used to enhance case analysis, treatment planning, and implant placement and restoration execution throughout the process. For example, the predictability of implant dentistry improves when CBCT, implant-planning software, and surgical guides are properly integrated into the workflow.

In fact, the implant-planning process often begins by taking a CBCT scan, “which serves as a rich communication medium among collaborating team members and enables the subsequent fabrication of implant surgical guides. Combined, these advances contribute to a more predictable and stress-free implant placement process,” Impieri explains.

“Knowledge is power, and CBCT provides more knowledge—information that builds clinician confidence, drives smarter treatment planning, and meaningfully engages the patient,” Impieri observes. “As the demand for implant dentistry continues to grow, CBCT is an essential tool in providing the highest quality care with reliability and confidence.”

To help members of the team maximize the potential of CBCT—as well as maintain a seamless workflow and better employ digitally based tools (eg, design software, treatment-planning software, surgical-guide fabrication) when they are not otherwise readily available—virtually based HIPAA-compliant resources can fill the void. Depending on a case’s specific requirements, these services can be used for radiology interpretations, CBCT scan protocols, developing patient-specific treatment workflows, determining ideal implant placement, fabricating surgical guides, and digitally designing restorations.

One such service is Implant Concierge. While it is physically located in San Antonio, Texas, through its proprietary, web-based software program Virtual Treatment Plan Coordinators can assist clinicians on implant cases by consolidating and coordinating CBCT solutions and guided implant surgical services regardless of the clinician’s geographic location. Its chief executive officer, Bret E. Royal, says, “Computer-guided implant surgery, virtual implant planning, and CAD/CAM-generated surgical guides are powerful tools that allow general practitioners to fully understand all of the anatomical considerations before they lay a flap. Technology obviously does not replace surgical skill and experience, but it does enable dentists with varying degrees of experience and training to properly vet which cases match their skill sets according to the complexity of those cases.”

Digital technologies certainly have changed the professional and dental laboratory industries—and rapidly, Rensburg says. In fact, what can be accomplished today is phenomenal, Spear says, from online collaboration where all team members can view real-time, virtual implant-placement manipulation to restoration design, all before the implant is even placed.

“It’s hard to deny that technology has altered the way we can analyze a patient in terms of the possibilities for implant placement,” Spear admits. “What we often don’t think or talk about, however, is how it actually allows us to monitor and compare a condition over time very accurately for long-term diagnosis and treatment planning.”

So, Are You Ready for Implant Dentistry?

Whether dentists choose to perform both surgical and restorative phases of implant-supported prosthodontic treatments, or just one phase as part of a collaborative team, the final result for the patient should seamlessly meld the two, Bennett says. Education and training help make that possible, as do the integration of relevant technologies, collaboration, and/or the use of implant treatment-planning services. Ultimately, however, competency is the defining factor when determining who should be placing and restoring dental implants. A surgical procedure that can have some potentially untoward effects, dental implant placement requires a competency level that must be achieved through more than just the occasional course here or there—many times through postdoctoral education and comprehensive training programs, Aldredge emphasizes.

Reference

1. Market research in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United States. Exevia. 2014.

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