Developed by a practicing dentist, the Zosseo Universal Implant Drill Stop kit allows for osteotomies that do not require as precise a visualization for depth control. It has a single width for all drills – only requires length determination for the osteotomy and has precise depth penetration – eliminating the risk of over drilling and potential sinus or nerve complications.

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E-Mail This     Topic: Drill Design

The million or so artificial hips and knees implanted each year in the United States are normally not guaranteed. Instead, the costs of replacing implants that fail early because of design or mechanical problems — devices that sell for as much as $15,000 each — are largely paid by Medicare, insurance companies and patients. Implants can fail for many reasons, but if only a small percentage of them fail prematurely because they are substandard, the costs to taxpayers, policyholders and patients can run into the tens of millions of dollars each year, health care experts estimate. Orthopedic producers may sometimes even profit from the failures because they sell the replacements at full price. “Companies have dumped these costs into the health care system,” said Dr. Lawrence D. Dorr, an orthopedic surgeon in Los Angeles who two years ago took the unusual step of drawing attention to one problematic hip device. “They don’t have any skin in the game.”

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E-Mail This     Topic: Implant Design

A Las Vegas dentist has filed a FDA Med Watch report regarding the integrity and therefore sterility of Nobel Biocare Replace Implants. To quote from the report: "I have experienced substantial and unexplainable failures with Nobel Biocare`s ("Nobel") Replace(TM) Implants. Of 88 consecutively placed implants,34 required removal due to pain or infection for a failure rate of 38.6% (Attachment #1). I doubt these failures are caused entirely by my case selection or surgical skill because I also recorded the clinical success of 51 consecutively places Implant Direct RePlant(TM) Implants from 2008-2009 with only 2 requiring removal for a failure rate of 3.9% I brought this information to Nobel Biocare`s attention, as shown in my letter of October 27, 2008 (Attachment #3) and submitted failure reports on their forms (Attachment #4). Nobel refused to take back my remaining implant inventory, contending that the problem lay with my surgical skills rather than with their implants. After Nobel`s refusal, I continued to use some of my remaining inventory of Nobel Replace implants while also incorporating Implant Direct`s RePlant implants into my practice. After experiencing a significantly higher failure rate with the Nobel Replace implants compared to Implant Direct`s RePlant implants, I stopped using the Nobel implants altogether. Seven Nobel implants from my inventory were sent to Nelson Labs (Attachment #5) and eight were sent to an ISTA Certified Lab (Attachment #6) for dye immersion tests. As can be seen on these reports, all of the implants tested failed to provide a seal required to assure the maintenance of sterility of the contents."

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E-Mail This     Topic: Dental Implant Industry

Dr. Paul Sharpe`s company Odontis Ltd. has been awarded US Patent #7588936 for the regeneration of teeth primordia using bone marrow cells. Bone marrow cells may be employed to generate teeth without the need for purification and expansion of a population of cells. The group of British scientists claim that they have figured out a way to make dentures obsolete, with the power of stem cells. Simply put, stem cells taken from a patient will be used to grow a bunch of cells that will grow into a tooth. The cells will then be implanted in an incision in the patient’s gum. Even more amazing, the process of “nudging” the stem cells to turn into a “ball of cells” that will in turn become a tooth supposedly takes only two weeks. The scientists have formed a company, Odontis, to capitalize on their technique, and they are calling their (potential) product the BioTooth.

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2 Comments:   .. Where can i sign up to participate in these trials ..

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Dental implant makers lost their shine as a recession-proof investment during the global crisis, which turned fixing smiles into a luxury for consumers who struggled to pay for non-essential work on their mouths. "In spite of their rather functional nature, implants are similar to luxury goods in the sense that they are expensive, discretionary items," Jefferies analyst Stephan Gasteyger said. The dental implant market earned a reputation for being recession-proof by maintaining double-digit growth rates in prior downturns, but the exceptionally tight credit markets during the recent crisis killed growth last year. Implants have proven to be more cyclical than other parts of the medical technology sector as patients usually have to pay for the often expensive treatments themselves and are rarely reimbursed by insurance policies. "We are talking about a price category that is similar to a nice Swiss watch," Gasteyger said.

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With economic pressures affecting millions of Americans, dentists may have noticed a drop in patients opting for a brighter smile, but they are seeing another phenomenon: a rise in the number of teeth grinders. “I’m seeing a lot more people that are anxious, stressed out and very concerned about their financial futures and they’re taking it out on their teeth,” said Dr. Steven Butensky, a dentist with a specialty in prosthodontics (aesthetic, implant and reconstructive dentistry) in Manhattan. One of his patients lost hundreds of thousands of dollars invested with Bernard L. Madoff. Another reported that he had lost a job with a seven-figure salary. A third, a single mother with a floral design business on Long Island, said she was working twice as hard for half as much.

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1 Comments:   .. During these tough economic times, many people are ..

E-Mail This     Topic: Education

Numerous dental implant company`s have sprung up over the last 3 years that aim to deliver either very similar designs or almost direct copies of established company`s design. These clone implants are often substantially less expense i.e. 1/4 the cost of full service dental implant company`s implants. In addition to mimicking the implant, they have also expanded into compatible prosthetic parts and coverscrews. Especially prominent clone makers Blue Sky Bio (Clone: Straumann, Nobel Biocare and Zimmer) and Dr. Niznick`s Implant Direct (Clone: Straumann, Nobel Biocare, Astra, Zimmer, 3i) are an attractive temptation during less sunny economic times. With some newer designs from the large manufacturers costing close to $500US for the implant and coverscrew, the $100US "out the door" pricing argument of the clone makers is compelling.
The Large Manufacturer`s Argument: We invest huge sums in R&D, Service and Support so we want a return on our investment.
The Clones` Argument: Marketing+Distribution+Recruitment of Opinion Leaders = 50% the cost of overhead - we dispense with that and pass on the savings to the dentist.
Both are reasonable arguments. One thing is for sure, competition is never a bad thing.

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Anna Tampieri at the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics, Faenza, and colleagues have turned wood into bone mimics that could be used to repair damaged limbs. The Italian scientists were inspired by nature`s highly organised hierarchial structures to make porous hydroxyapatite scaffolds with structures similar to that of real bone. The scaffolds `pave the way for realising prosthetic devices which could get closer to the extraordinary performance of human tissues`, they claim. The team heated the wood to decompose the organic parts that make up most of its weight, leaving behind the carbon template. They reacted the template first with calcium, then oxygen and then carbon dioxide to form calcium carbonate. Finally, they converted it to hydroxyapatite using a phosphate donor. The material keeps its original microstructure, exploiting the unique architectural properties of the wood`s cellular make-up, explains Tampieri. This means cells and blood vessels can grow through the structure and incorporate it into the original bone.

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E-Mail This     Topic: Bone Grafting

The New York Times health section recently published an informative article on the trend away from using bridges to replace missing teeth and toward replacement with dental implants. The comments section of this article is also particularly lively and well-worth reading.

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E-Mail This     Topic: Education

The Powertome 100S from Westport Medical is a powered periotome used in the extraction of teeth. It features a powered periotome blade that is precisely guided in the periodontal ligament by a microprocessor controlled, solenoid actuator. It features a footswitch activated handle similar to other dental hand pieces and the operation, actuation and sterilization are therefore intuitive.

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E-Mail This     Topic: Extraction