Implant Dentistry: Rooted in the future - DentalProductsReport.com

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Rooted in the future

As implant dentistry races toward new technological solutions to better the accuracy and precision of surgical placement, reduce chairtime, and create less complicated procedures for the surgical and restorative team, companies look ahead to the next generation of innovations that will help achieve those goals.

We contacted several manufacturers involved in the implant field that are on the verge of launching new implant technologies and products. We hope the information on these pages will keep you and your clients better informed on what the next wave of innovation will bring and help you plan your business’ next strategic move.

By Pam Johnson

ATLANTIS COMPONENTS New abutment, better turnaround,online ordering Atlantis Components (www.atlantiscomp.com) continues to add enhancements to its line of high-precision custom-milled zirconia implant abutments. Currently under 510(k) review with the FDA is the Atlantis Abutment in Zirconia for Astra, which is expected to receive clearance in the fourth quarter of 2007. “The addition of Astra to the Atlantis Abutment in Zirconia product line expands the restorative possibilities for implants and gives Atlantis the widest offering of abutments in the industry,” said Susan Derryberry, Atlantis Director of Marketing. “The choice of both one- and two-stage protocols with Astra implants provides flexibility to both restorative and surgical clinicians.” Earlier in 2007, Atlantis announced a 33% reduction in turn-around time for Atlantis Abutments in Zirconia. Facilitated by infrastructure and process improvements, the company has pledged to continue to optimize the process. “With the launch in early 2008 of Zirconia FasTrack, Atlantis will have the best combination of turn-around time and availability of high-precision, patient-specific zirconia abutments in the industry,” Derryberry said. A third initiative will help customers better control multiple aspects of their abutment designs by allowing order entry via the Web and Atlantis Atlas. Atlantis customers will be able to enter preferences stored in their customer account, specifying emergence profile of abutment designs by prescriber and by dental region. Unlimited numbers of customers’ preferences can be stored, making the process of ordering abutments easier, faster, and more secure. Another enhancement allows labs to view images and details of all their Atlantis cases at their convenience. Additional feature enhancements will be announced in the next few months.
KEYSTONE DENTAL Easy-to-use precision New to the dental industry in 2006, Keystone Dental (www.keystonedental.com) was founded by private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Keystone’s mission is to provide innovative solutions for tooth replacement therapy. In early September, Keystone launched EasyGuide™ 3D implant planning software. Based on a completely revamped version of CADImplant, a French-developed 2D implant planning software with more than 20 years of clinical success, EasyGuide accepts 3D Cone Beam data and renders images in real time. Unlike other implant planning software on the market, the EasyGuide process transforms the radiographic guide produced by the laboratory into the surgical guide used by the surgeon to ensure precise placement and restorative fit. “The laboratory produces an acrylic radiographic guide with our ‘x-marker’ placed into the acrylic,” said Lei Zhang, Software Product Marketing Manager. The company’s surgical guides are not yet available but are expected to launch the first quarter of 2008. Initially the guides will be available for Straumann and Nobel implant systems. “However, for treatment planning, the software also provides several generic implant types in different diameters for planning any type of implant case,” said Jason Rogers, CAD/CAM Technologies Manager. “We included these in the software because in our market research it became clear that surgical specialists and placement dentists use more than one brand of implant system, and we didn’t want to limit the use of EasyGuide.” Keystone also is in the process of developing additions to its line of products for tooth replacement.
BIOCAD High-production implant abutments and bars BioCad (www.biocad.ca), a research center and high-production CAD/CAM production facility, inaugurated its new 12,000-square-foot facility in Quebec, Canada, on Sept. 7. Founded by Master Dental Technician Jean Robichaud and his sons Gabriel and Bernard, BioCad produces milled implant bars and customized abutments as well as milled frameworks. Its team of engineers developed ImplantCad, a sophisticated bar, abutment, and crown and bridge CAD/CAM system. A high-precision scanner located at BioCad’s facility is used to capture bar implants position, while another scanner, which is sold to laboratories, can capture a 3D image of patient dentition in less than 10 minutes by utilizing the master model. “Up to now, it was done manually,” Robichaud said. “However, due to the shortage of dental lab technicians, our solution makes it possible to save time and money, while ensuring implant precision to within a micron. With the click of the mouse, a technician anywhere in the world can transmit a 3D image to BioCad; and in less than one day, BioCad will mass customize production of the prostheses, bars, or custom abutments.” BioCad plans to launch its production center services in the United States in February in conjunction with the Chicago Midwinter Exhibition.
BIOMET 3i Navigating CT guided surgery Scheduled for launch this fall, BIOMET 3i‘s Navigator™ System (www.biomet3i.com) for CT Guided Surgery comprises surgical and laboratory kits. The kits work in conjunction with a computed tomography (CT) generated surgical guide for chairside precision implant placement. The surgical guide can be used for fabrication of an immediate load provisional prosthesis in the laboratory before implant placement. Matt Powell, Technical Marketing Director, said the open-architecture Navigator Surgical Kit is compatible with the leading manufacturers for virtual treatment planning software and surgical guide fabrication. Compatible companies currently include Materialise Dental, iDent, and Implant Logic Systems. Using scan data, these manufacturing partners produce surgical guides incorporating BIOMET 3i‘s master tubes. “The master tube is placed into the surgical guide by the guide manufacturer,” Powell said. “It allows use of all the instrumentation specific to our implant systems. The surgical guides with our guide tubes allow our customers to place our implants anywhere in the mouth and have the option to immediately place and provisionalize single tooth, partially edentulous, or fully edentulous implant cases.” The Navigator Laboratory Kit contains analog mounts in a variety of lengths and three diameters, depending on implant location and length. For a fully edentulous case, the analog mounts are connected to the implant analogs and placed into the master tubes on the surgical guide. The master cast is created by pouring stone directly into the guide. “From that point, the lab places the scanning appliance, a denture made of acrylic and CT readable barium, on the cast and articulates the case with the opposing, giving the lab a very accurate representation of the planned implant positions to make the provisional prior to the day of surgery.”
nSEQUENCE Partnering for implant success The nSequence Center for Advanced Dentistry (www.n-sequence.com), an interdisciplinary education and total implant solution center located in Reno is committed to helping laboratories and dentists achieve high-precision implant placement and restorative success in the new technology-driven paradigm of computerized implant treatment planning and provisionalization. nSequence, founded by Daniel R. Llop, CDT, President and CEO, partners with laboratories to handle the technological aspects of virtually planned implant cases. nSequence works directly with the surgeon for virtual planning, delivering the restorative aspect of the case back to the referring laboratory partner for final restoration. “With all the software and guided surgery options available to implantologists, the entry point for general dentists and laboratories in terms of treatment planning, implant design, and milling solutions can be very confusing” Llop said. “What we do here through our research and development department is boil all the vast amount of products and information down to discover what really works.” At the ADA this year in San Francisco, nSequence was announced as the only total solution provider for guided implant surgery during its course discussions. “Our partners are the laboratory,” Llop said. “If they have a client who wants to work with guided surgery, we work with the laboratory to get that client through the guided implant surgery process and provide immediate provisionalization by being able to offer their clients the highest level of implant therapy possible.” The education center, with its team of world renowned educators, works with both clinicians and laboratory owners to educate them on the latest technologies and virtual treatment planning software systems on the market as well as other aspects of dentistry. nSequence partners with fixed and removable laboratories to offer their dentists cutting-edge guided implant therapy. “We want to help our laboratory partners build their referral base by providing everything they need to deliver the perfect implant placement for the final restoration.” Llop stated.
METOXIT AG One-piece zirconia implants Metoxit (www.metoxit.com/info@metoxit.com) is a Swiss OEM manufacturer of a wide range of medical and dental-grade high-performance ceramic materials to customer specifications, including zirconia CAD/CAM milling blocks for many of the CAD/CAM systems currently on the market. Among its offerings are implant components. “We produce standard or stock zirconia abutments that we manufacture for some big implant companies,” said Dr.Wolfram Weber, CEO of Metoxit. “We also produce zirconia blanks in either final sintered form or in the presintered state for milling custom implant abutments and were one of the first to produce one-piece screw-retained zirconia implant systems. “ This past year, Metoxit began its own R&D project together with the Department of Prosthodontics at the University of Freiburg, Germany, with Professors Strup and Kohal to produce a new type of redefined ceramic implant. Composed of 20% alumina and 80% zirconia, this new material, called Ziraldent, exhibits a strength of 2000 MPa. “Ziraldent features a new implant design for the implant body and a new abutment design especially developed for CAD/CAM scanning and design of a custom milled abutment,” Weber said. “The new implant body surface, trademarked Zircapore, aids in faster osseointegration.” The rougher, porous osseoconductive topography of the zirconia implant surface promotes bonding between the implant and tissue. “Metoxit is planning to go into clinical studies early in 2008 with preliminary results available at the end of 2008,” Weber said.
3M ESPE Milling custom abutments 3M ESPE (www.3mespe.com) recently launched Lava™ Design Software 4.0, a software upgrade for the Lava CAD/CAM system that not only speeds the design process and increases overall productivity, but also increases indications to the design and milling of implant abutments for a wide variety of implant systems as well as inlays and onlay bridges, Maryland bridges, primary telescopes, and 6-unit bridges with up to four pontics in the anterior region. The new Nested Scanning feature allows the user to scan multiple crowns, including bite registration, in one scan and then separate the individual cases into separate files; thus, speeding up the scanning process, especially with simple coping cases.
KaVo Streamlining processes Late last year, KaVo announced a joint marketing and distribution agreement with Neoss Limited (www.neoss.com). The collaboration allows KaVo EVEREST users to manufacture custom implant abutments for approximately 85% of the implant systems sold on the market in ceramics and titanium by using the NeoLink interface. “The customer buys the NeoLink adapter, which creates the interface between the implant and the abutment,” said Stefanie Siebert, Product Manager CAD/CAM EVEREST. “Users select the correct implant shapes from our EVEREST software library and execute adjustments onscreen to design the custom abutment and then use that data to virtually design the coping. Both the abutment and coping can be milled in the same cycle for valuable time savings, and the crown created immediately thereafter.” Looking to the future, Siebert said that KaVo’s acquisition by the Danaher group puts KaVo in a good position to take the next step in digital implant solutions. “We are doing research in the Cone Beam technology arena,” said Siebert. “We know it’s where the future lies.”

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