The University of Connecticut Health Center has received a five-year, $2.6 million grant from the US National Institutes of Health to study the relationship between osteoporosis and the success or failure of regeneration and dental implants. They plan to recruit 120 women for the study. Specifically, the study is designed to help the researchers develop a reliable estimate of the two-year success rate of bone augmentation and dental implants in women with broadly varying bone density measurements.

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E-Mail This     Topic: Implant Study

Preclinical results were presented recently at the EAO meeting for Straumann`s innovative hydrogel-based membrane, which confirmed the product`s efficacy and ease of handling. The first clinical trial was successfully completed in the third quarter, with each of the endpoints being met. On this basis, applications for regulatory clearance should be submitted in the current quarter. Straumann and Kuros Biosurgery, a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute, ETHZ and the University of Zurich, applied for a patent on this technology in 2003.

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The perils of living in New York go beyond the grave. The directors of seven funeral homes have been stripped of their licenses and face jail after pleading guilty to their role in what one US official called "the crime of the century" – whenever they got hold of a suitable corpse, they would tip off a team of illegal body harvesters led by Michael Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon who had lost his dentist`s license. Operating out of a secret room in a Brooklyn funeral home, Mastromarino would extract useful skin, organs and even bones which would be replaced with pieces of PVC piping so as to not arouse suspicion at open-casket funerals. The body of British broadcaster Alistair Cooke, of Masterpiece Theater fame, was plundered by the harvesters and paperwork altered to record his age as 85 rather than 95. The body snatchers allegedly surgically removed Mr. Cooke`s bones and sold them for more than $7,000 to a company supplying parts for use in dental implants and various orthopedic procedures.

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Sweden`s Medical Product Agency (SMPA) has announced it will delay its final verdict on the safety of Nobel Biocare AB`s dental implant NobelDirect, which is alleged to cause bone-loss, until November. The agency cited a delay in the release of Nobel Biocare`s two-year follow-up study as being responsible. Two Swedish dentists in May 2005 alleged that the product is causing bone-loss, prompting investigations by the heathcare authority.

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Bicon have developed a new surface process, NanoTite™. A high-energy ion beam source aims a beam of ions at the surface of a target treated with HA. These high-energy ions eject the HA from the target/substrate and create a molecular cloud whose molecules bond with the surface of the Bicon Ti 6Al-4V ELI implant. This Ion-Beam Assisted Deposition process, which provides increased integration with the implant surface, is known as High-Energy Sputter Deposition. Using an Ion-Beam Assisted Deposition process, the titanium alloy is modified with a thin (less than 1 micrometer) amorphous calcium phosphate compound with HA-like chemistry and physical properties for enhancement of bone integration.

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1 Comments:   .. Looks very impressive! ..

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Ulf Wikesjö of the Medical College of Georgia has demonstrated impressive osseous regeneration around dental implants coated with recombinant human Bone Morphogenic Protein (rhBMP-2). Dr. Wikesjö is researching wound-healing and tissue regeneration with a $1.4 million grant from Nobel Biocare. In laboratory tests, rhBMP-2 applied onto implants directs endogenous stem cells to become bone-forming cells. The result was a nearly complete regeneration of lost tissue. He hopes to start clinical trials in the summer of 2006.

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Famous mafia boss John Gotti, Dr Leonard Linkow and blade implants - all part of the history of implantology. An amazing story reported by the NY Daily News in 2002. Enjoy:

Around 1988, after losing several teeth, Gotti tired of dentures and had permanent implants surgically installed and his remaining teeth capped. He visited the E. 50th St. offices of Dr. Leonard Linkow, a frank-talking New Yorker with a shock of white hair. Linkow had been famous among dentists worldwide since the late 1960s, when he introduced a new type of implant as an alternative to dentures. As a show of gratitude, Gotti wanted to have a custom suit made for Linkow. The offer came via Jack (The Nose) D`Amico, one of Gotti`s closest associates. Linkow said. "I said, `No, no, I got plenty of suits, and I don`t have enough time in the world to wear the suit,`" But D`Amico insisted, repeatedly, until Linkow recognized it was an offer he couldn`t refuse.... [story continues]

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IVS Solutions AG has released a 2-dimensional implant placement planner that uses panoromic and peri-apical xrays for the implantologist to design the type and position of the implant(s). The software then produces a surgical plan which lists the implants planned for placement as well as an image of the planned implant positioned on the xray.

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BEGO Implant Systems GmbH & Co has designed a customizable healing abutment designed to shape the soft tissue. By customizing the PEEK blank at the chairside the emergence profile can be shaped, elliptical or even triangular, depending on the circumferential shape of the tooth that is to be replaced. It is made of a high-strength and completely biocompatible plastic abutment made of (implantable) polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK). This material is trimmed into the required shape with the handpiece at the chairside and is used in place of a conventional healing abutment to sculpt the peri-implant soft tissue emergence profile.

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Brown University engineers have shown that both zinc and titanium oxide nanosurfaces can reduce the presence of bacteria. Discs with nanostructured surfaces had bumps that measured only .023 microns in diameter. Discs with microstructured surfaces had bumps that measured about 5 microns in diameter. Microstructured zinc oxide discs were host to 1,000 times more bacteria than the nanostructured zinc oxide discs. Similar, but less striking, results were duplicated on titanium oxide discs. The engineer`s hypothesis is that: `with the nanostructured surfaces we created, surface area increased by 25 to 35 percent. We think that this additional area, along with the unique surface energetics of these nanomaterials, gave bone-forming cells more places to adhere. But with bacteria, increased surface area may work the other way, exposing the bugs to more of the germ-fighting properties of the zinc oxide.`

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