Dental implant technology Archives - Page 2 of 2

What we’ve been up to: Britten Perio Seminar: Periodontal Maintenance of Dental Implants

February 22, 2017
Britten
Dentistry

On February 16th, we had the pleasure of hosting a seminar “Periodontal Maintenance of Dental Implants” with many local dental professionals. Dental implants have become the standard of excellence in tooth replacement. As is the case with natural teeth, patients and their dental professionals must work as a team to ensure the longevity of their dental implant.

Our educational seminar discussed the latest techniques and technologies available to help dental professionals monitor maintain the health of their patients’ dental implants. The seminar reviewed how dental professionals can help their patients achieve long-term implant health through state of the art monitoring techniques, regular professional dental hygiene care and patient oral hygiene education. It also reviewed fixtures of the many different implant systems (old and new) that exist as well as the most accepted and current methods of patient and professional maintenance.

Dental professionals realize that there are many variations of dental implant designs available, and an ever-increasing population of patients living with dental implants. As an expert in dental implant placement and dental implant health, Dr. Britten felt was important to share with his colleagues and their teams a continuing education course specific to dental implant care. “Dental implants are complex, sophisticated dental devices, and it is important that we as implant experts continuously stay educated on modern monitoring methods.” – Dr. Todd Britten

Dr. Gregory Oxford, a periodontist of 34 years and one of Dr. Britten’s professors at University of Florida and Dentsply-Sirona, a leader in dental products and the dental implant system Ankylos, partnered with Britten Periodontics & Implant Dentistry to provide a great continuing education course. The event was catered by Stephanie and Allie with Empamamas Food Truck. The food and service were spectacular! The Sweet Life Bakery even provided dental themed cookies for the event. So as always, we partnered learning with some food and some good food!

New Advancements in Technology for Dental Implants

December 23, 2016
Britten
Dentistry

Dental implants today are not only considered the gold standard of care for tooth replacement, but they are usually now considered to be the superior or ideal treatment option for damaged or lost teeth. We are excited about the many advancements in implant planning, placement and technology.

A major advancement has come in the form of improved imaging and planning of dental implants. ConeBeam CT scans give an efficient, ultra-low radiation image that allows the surgeon excellent information about the surgical site. This is often combined with computer software to plan the exact location of the dental implants, which is then used to make a surgical guide. “This amazing technology takes virtually all human error out of the process. We can practice planning the dental implants on the computer model before the patient comes in. We can even plan for the location and shape of the final tooth,” says Dr. Todd Britten.

Implant sizes, materials and systems continue to improve. The titanium ally used in dental implants now allows for more compact and biocompatible implants while still providing the needed strength to resist the strong bite forces of the mouth. Implant-supported dentures have also come a long way, and many times four implants can be used to retain a complete upper or lower denture.

Materials to provide bone support are also continuously improving. After the loss of one or more teeth, the jawbone will deteriorate or lose support where the tooth or teeth used to be. Ridge augmentation uses bone and tissue-grafting procedures to fill in the area where jaw bone has been lost, leaving more bone and better support for dental implant placement.

Guided bone regeneration for ridge augmentation has been found to be very predictable. Synthetic growth factors have used for this procedure have improved and we can also use our patient’s own blood to produce materials rich in growth factors, such as L-PRF.

In summary, the advances in implant dentistry allowing us to plan our implant placements better, regenerate lost bone more predictably, and place implants with more accuracy and into more sites than ever before. It is exciting to think of what is coming in the future of dental implant placement, all with less patient discomfort and risk.

As an implant specialist, Dr. Britten is highly trained and experienced in the most advanced and current technologies used for long-term implant health and success. He believes in using the best diagnostic tools as well as the highest quality implants in his practice. Dr. Britten works closely with the best restorative dentists in the Tampa Bay area to obtain the best possible outcome for his patients’ implants. For more information, contact us at 727-586-2681.