Dr. Justin Moody offers his experience with equipment and materials that make bone grafting more predictable
Wouldn’t it be great if we never had to worry about having enough bone volume for dental implant surgery? That would certainly make the procedure easier, but unfortunately, that is just not the case. As matter of fact, with bone loss being 10 times greater the first year after tooth loss, we find ourselves needing to regenerate bone more than ever. Over the years, I have found that about 35% of my patients need hard tissue augmentation to regain lost bone volume, and in my opinion, that’s a significant percentage.
We have not always had the product options that are available today, and in my experience, as a result of new materials and equipment, grafting has become easier and far more predictable. Autogenous bone is always the best, but when we need a large volume, that is not always easy to harvest. In my practice, I have had good results over the years with allograft materials such as MinerOss® from BioHorizons®.
Technology has stepped into this area and is showing us how we can save time and money. 3D cone beam imaging (I use i-CAT™) along with Tx STUDIO™ 5.4 by Anatomage now allows us to estimate the graft volume so that we can use just the right amount of material. With the detailed anatomical information that I can obtain from the i-CAT scan, I can determine the precise location of the graft, making surgery shorter and safer for the patient. The ability to have this information ahead of time makes the clinician more efficient, the procedure more predictable, the outcome more reliable, and the ultimately more profitable — all while giving the patient the best care possible. Knowing all the facts and having all of these tools at my fingertips gives me more confidence and allows me to be more creative and offer more options for patient care.
Justin Moody, DDS, DICOI, DABOI, is a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral Implantology and of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists, Fellow and Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Implant Dentistry, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical College. He is an international speaker and is in private practice at The Dental Implant Center in Rapid City, South Dakota. He can be reached at justin@justinmoodydds.com or at www.justinmoodydds.com.
Disclosure: Dr. Moody is a paid speaker for BioHorizons and i-CAT. He has no ties to Anatomage.
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