Greig Mclean, clinical director of The Berkeley Clinic, shares why he uses Neodent implants. Greig provides an overview of the system and some of its unique benefits.
The world of dentistry is evolving at an ever increasing rate. Not a month goes by without a new implant, composite, scanner or orthodontic system emerging into the ever complex landscape. With the increasing choices on offer it can be challenging to see the wood from the trees and perhaps choose what is best for your patients and your practising career.
At The Berkeley Clinic we are always striving to improve the level of care and our patient and referral practice offering. For us, changing implant systems was not a decision to be taken lightly and it is one that required careful research. Fundamentally it was a decision based around the desire to offer our patients and our referral patients a better long-term outcome and simpler, less stressful solution.
With this in mind we have taken the decision to choose Neodent implants as our first choice implant platform. We hope you enjoy reading about the rationale behind our decision process and we welcome any enquiries regarding our upcoming courses or open nights.
Who are Neodent?
When we were approached by Instradent (a Strauman company) about Neodent implants our first question was ‘who are Neodent? We’ve never heard of them.’ This is ironically enough a question that keeps coming up just now. I do however feel that this will change very rapidly in the UK given our initial success with the platform and the team that Instradent have put together to launch and grow their presence in the UK.
I will share with you the surprising information we have subsequently found out about the world’s best kept secret in implant dentistry. Neodent was established over 23 years ago and, by volume of implants placed, is the fourth largest implant manufacturer in the world. It is based in Brazil with offices globally, and became part of the Strauman group in 2012.
To date, over six million Neodent implants have been sold worldwide, officially launching in the UK through Instradent earlier this year. Currently over one million Neodent implants are placed annually by over 30,000 dentists.
In short, they are a huge implant company, owned by the world’s largest implant company and they have been successfully replacing missing teeth for over 23 years with over seven million implants sold globally.
What were the key factors for us choosing Neodent implants?
1. Research and reliability
The first and perhaps most important factor for choosing an implant system is research and reliability. To this end Neodent is very well placed as a system. It has over 20 years of peer-reviewed studies backing it. The system has a 96.5% success rate over 10 years (open study with 3,578 patients).
Finally, it has over 150 international scientific studies that have recognised the exceptional quality and success of Neodent implants. I would recommend anyone who has an interest to check out their studies at www.instradent.us.
That being said, as a platform it stands up to the highest standards and shows fantastic long-term success and bone retention levels. So for us this made the decision to use them a relatively straightforward one.
With such a wealth of research behind the implant system and the size of the company, we were assured that both the clinical outcomes and the reliability would be ideal for both our patients and our referral practices.
2. Ongoing support and education
As a referral and education centre we were looking for a company that would support both us and our referral practices to help them grow and add dental implants to their own clinics. We were looking for an implant company that would be there to take away the complexity and worries associated with learning to restore or place dental implants. In conjunction with Neodent we have put together three key courses for 2017, which will be running from the education space at The Berkeley Clinic.
These will allow anyone interested to choose what level of implant dentistry they would like to progress to. We will be running a refer and restore course, which will teach delegates how to refer an implant patient and more importantly how to restore in your own practice. This will be done with mentoring at The Berkeley Clinic so that the stress and worry of starting to restore implants is taken care of.
Furthermore, with on-site support from 4D Dental crown and bridge lab, any prosthetic concerns or challenges will be easily managed. We will also be offering every referral clinic a free restorative kit worth £826.25 with their first implant referral. Secondly, we will be running a two-day implant maintenance course for dental therapists and hygienists. This again will be starting in 2017 and will be done in partnership with Neodent. This course will cover all aspects of looking after implant patients and maintaining implant health.
Finally, we will be running a year-long surgical course for those dentists that would like to learn to place dental implants. Again this will be supported by Neodent and will allow dentists to place implants in a mentored environment in one of the implant suites at The Berkeley Clinic.
We believe that to successfully introduce dental implants to your clinic education and support is critical. In partnership with Neodent we have created a suite of supporting resources and on-site training so that you and your team can make dental implants a successful part of your clinic.
3. Ease of use
For those of you that have opened up an implant catalogue or have experience with dental implants, you will know that the array of platform sizes, different connections and restorative options can be baffling at first glance.
Working with our referral dentists we realised that a lot of them wanted a simpler approach to restoring implants. With this in mind, Neodent implants and its CM implant line provided an ideal solution. The connection is a true cone morse taper giving the benefit of great long-term stability without microleakage or micromovement.
As well as excellent long-term mechanical stability, the CM implant line has a single connection size for all implant sizes meaning that you only have to carry one size of impression coping. For a lot of dentists new to implant dentistry, the need to carry three of everything can be both costly and confusing.
4. Excellent soft tissue health and aesthetics
One of the most challenging aspects concerning implant dentistry is bone preservation and soft tissue health. Neodent implants have a novel approach to their placement and restorative protocols, which appears to offer some benefits in relation to bone level preservation and soft tissue health.
I will be covering the novel aspects related to the placement and restorative protocols of some of the systems in a future article. In summary though, the cone morse connection and unique restorative principles have a good level of research supporting superior aesthetic outcomes compared to some alternative systems.
5. A solution for all situations
As a clinic we wanted one implant partner that could provide a solution from simple implants, to full mouth fixed and removable offerings. The single implant or multiple fixed implant options are ideal for patients and clinicians alike, with screw- or cement-retained and are straightforward and easy to learn with the right training and support.
Along with simple implant cases we see a large number of fully edentulous or highly challenging implant patients at the clinic. Some of these patients are devoid of adequate bone for more traditional implant techniques. This can present a challenge when offering a fixed solution for these patients, especially where bone levels are extremely poor.
To this end we were looking for an implant partner that had both a solution for a full arch fixed solution on four implants (Neodents Neoarch) as well as an implant partner that had a zygomatic implant solution. We have a number of patients that have been given fixed teeth back where they were previously told they could not have implants.
The use of zygomatic implants for these patients has transformed their lives. Neodent recently invited me to their global education centre for further surgical training on their zygomatic implant process. The facilities and training were excellent and I am pleased to say that we are now offering zygomatic implants at The Berkeley Clinic.
In summary
We are excited to be launching our 2017 education programme in partnership with Neodent. Anyone who would like further information please get in touch to find out more. If you would like to learn how to restore, place or maintain dental implants then please drop us a line. We would be delighted to help.
For more information on The Berkeley Clinic, visit www.berkeleyclinic.com.
