A Review of Some Dental Implant Systems

A Review of Some Dental Implant Systems
2005
OsseoNews
Dr. Jeffery Hoos is well known for developing the ÇƒÚH&HÇƒÙ impression technique for crown and bridge impressions. He is also very experienced in placing and restoring implants and presents two-day hands-on courses across the country on several implant systems. Dr. Hoos is also a management consultant and is well known for his seminars on ÇƒÚBalancing the Art, Science and Business of DentistryÇƒÙ. Dr. Hoos will be presenting half day management courses at the upcoming Greater New York Dental Meeting this coming Novemebr. Dr. Hoos maintains a general practice in Stratford, Connecticut. Many of his patients come from out of state or out of the country.
Osseonews (ON): Dr. Hoos, I know you have been placing and restoring implants for almost twenty years. How did you first get started with implants?
Dr. Hoos: I entered the world of implants kicking and screaming. I had only seen blade implant and many of these had failed with serious consequences for the patients. I remember one patient in particular, a very sweet, little old woman who presented at the office with a single gold point sticking out of her gum attached to a submerged blade implant. It was amazing how much that helped her to stabilize her ill-fitting denture. I was converted and started looking more closely at scew-type endosseous implants.
ON: What were some of the implant systems that you first started with?
Dr. Hoos: I had several patients that had anterior staple implants. This involved both intraoral and extraoral surgical procedures. These implants were loaded immediately which was a complicated prosthetic procedure. It was also quite expensive and difficult to persuade patients to accept this kind of a treatment plan. The open basket Core-Vent implants were popular in my area. The abutment was cemented into the implant and then conventional crown and bridge restorations were done. We had many long-term failures and many short-term successes. Most last up to five years and then went downhill. HA coated press-fit implants were also around but the HA was all the way to the top of the implant and those did not work well. Once we zeroed in on titanium screw implants everything was great. It has been a long journey but we needed a learning curve . I learned from my successes and failures.
ON: What implant systems do you currently favor?
Dr. Hoos: I am currently using IMTEC, Endopore, LifeCore, and BASIC. I am looking very carefully at the Nobel Biocare Select.
ON: Are there any implant systems that feature unique products that you would recommend?
Dr. Hoos: I like the IMTEC immediate load implants to stabilize lower and upper dentures. I use them with convertional implants. The case is done with two conventional implants in the canine areas and two IMTEC between them. At the day of surgery the IMTECÇƒÙs are loaded and the lower denture is functional and the patients are thrilled. Once the other implants have integrated, they are uncovered and put into function as well. The patients are very happy because they do not have to wait.
ON: Have you experienced any failures in implant therapy?
Dr. Hoos: That is like saying I never break root tips. Of course I have had failures but they are now very rare. Of course the best implant to place is on a patient 125 years old and the worst is on a fifteen year old.
ON: What kinds of problems have you experienced with early failures?
Dr. Hoos: I think I have seen everything from fixtures breaking, frank infections, and of course, screws loosening.
ON: What kinds of problems have you experienced with prosthetic failures?
Dr. Hoos: The big one is screw loosening under cemented crowns. This has happened even when screws were torqued down according to the manufacturerÇƒÙs recommendations. I have had porcelain fracture after being in the mouth for a while because the occlusion changed on the natural teeth. I recommend that you re-evaluate the occlusion at every recall visit to identify interferences that may produce porcelain fracture or occlusal dysfunction.