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Zimmer Dental Announces Exclusive Distributorship of ERA Mini Dental Implant System

March 30, 2010 by

For many decades, Zimmer Dental has offered an industry-leading line of dental components, engineered to offer the best patient outcomes while still remaining an excellent value. Now, Zimmer Dental, a subsidiary of Zimmer Holdings Inc., is pleased to offer the ERA Mini Dental Implant System, produced by Sterngold Dental – a leader in the industry for denture stabilization procedures using dental implants. Zimmer will be the exclusive distributor for the ERA system, a system which can substantially increase the quality of life for patients with dentures.

The ERA Mini Dental Implant System is a versatile, multi-dimensional system consisting of prosthetic components, surgical instruments, an ERA Mini Dental Implant, and the popular ERA attachment, which offers angulation correction and vertical resilience. The system allows clinicians to enable the function of a patient’s denture at the same time as the osseointegration of traditional dental implants. The ERA Mini Dental Implant System also allows dentists to offer their patients affordable stabilization of their dentures in single visits over the long term.

By stabilizing unsecured dentures using the ERA Mini Dental Implant System, a clinician can greatly improve the quality of life for his or her patients. Patients will be able to chew and speak properly, which promotes self-confidence and increases their comfort on a daily basis. A properly fitting prosthesis can even encourage a patient to consume a greater variety of foods.

Harold Flynn, Jr., the President of Zimmer Dental, states that the exclusive distribution agreement that Zimmer reached with Sterngold Dental proves Zimmer’s commitment to providing a comprehensive line of products which offer excellence in versatility, value, and good patient outcomes. He admits that traditional implants are the core focus for his company, but recognizes that stabilizing implants are the best option for treating unsecured dentures and aims to bring this treatment option to patients who have not yet been offered this life-changing procedure.

Around the world, thousands of dentists and other healthcare providers trust Zimmer Dental to deliver meaningful solutions to their needs. The ERA Mini Dental Implant System will be a valuable addition to their offerings, giving clinicians everywhere an opportunity to provide their patients with the best in patient care and quality of life.

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Virtual Reality Game a Valuable Learning Tool for Dental Students

March 30, 2010 by

A new computer program will soon be used by dental students to help them learn and remember how to properly handle dental implant procedures. Faculty members at the School of Dentistry at the Medical College of Georgia have been working with students and a game-developer to create a simulation program which will help students reinforce and expand their learning.

In recent years, there has been a lot of interest and enthusiasm about developing simulation tools and virtual reality environments to help students learn. Dental implant procedures are growing in popularity and it is crucial for today’s dental students to understand the need for implants and how to use them. Dental implants are screwed into the jawbone and act as substitute roots which can then be used to attach prosthetic teeth. They are a popular alternative to bridges and crowns, and are expected to become even more prevalent in the near future. Currently, a quarter of all adults who are over the age of 60 have lost all of their natural teeth. For these patients, dental implants are an important option and as life spans are increasing and more of the country is aging, dental implant procedures are expected to increase as well.

The virtual reality game developed at the Medical College of Georgia allows a dental student to simulate the entire process of placing dental implants from the very beginning, when the virtual patient shows up at the simulated dental office. The game pairs a dental student with a virtual patient selected at random, which means the student has no way of knowing any information about the virtual patient without interacting with him or her. The student must find out as much information as possible about the patient’s medical history and treatment goals, and then suggest the best course to help the patient before the simulated procedure can begin.

If dental implants seem to be a good match for the virtual patient, the game will move to a virtual treatment area. The dental student must then decide the type of dental implants to be used, as well as where they will be located and how they will be oriented. Anesthesia must also be used, just as in real life, and if the anesthetic is not placed in the exact correct spot, the virtual patient will scream in pain when the dental implant procedure begins. It’s a valuable lesson for dental students that it is important to pay careful attention to each step of the treatment process.

Most students find the game interesting and fun, which is exactly how its developers hoped students would react. But although the game may be fun, it is also a valuable learning tool. In recent years, research has shown a solid correlation between healthcare clinicians who practice their skills via simulated software programs and better patient outcomes.

Despite the effectiveness of these learning programs, most experts agree that simulations can never take the place of actual clinical experience – of performing actual procedures on real patients. The simulations just provide the student with additional knowledge and confidence so that when they work on actual patients, they perform better than they might have otherwise.

The development of the game was funded by the Medical College of Georgia and Nobel Biocare, a company which manufactures dental implants. The program will soon be used at 25 dental schools around the world, reaching thousands of students.

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Filed Under: Cosmetic Dentist, Dental Care, Dental Implants Tagged With: ,

Loosing a tooth dental implants

March 30, 2010 by

For a dental patient, losing a natural tooth can be an emotional and depressing process. Dentists have understood this and, for many years, have sought to help patients preserve natural teeth to the greatest extent possible, even performing multiple root canals and other invasive and costly procedures to save a patient’s diseased tooth. However, the AAID (American Academy of Implant Dentistry) recently issued a statement claiming that dental “heroics” should be abandoned and dentists should instead replace teeth that have been damaged by substantial decay and gum disease with dental implants instead.

Dr. John Minichetti stated he did not see the justification for a patient having to undergo several painful and financially burdensome procedures to save a failing tooth. He claims that times have changed and that preserving a troubled tooth is no longer the best option for patients, either from an aesthetic or health perspective. He feels that preserving teeth until they fall out is not in the patient’s best interest.

Patients who face the loss of a natural tooth often want to try to save the tooth more because of aesthetic reasons than for any others. Today’s dental implants can offer these patients a viable and natural-looking alternative. Most of the time, there is no visual difference between a dental implant and a natural tooth, and the functionality is exactly the same too. Using dental implants can help a patient to better accept the loss of a natural tooth by providing a natural-looking result without having to go through root canals and other painful procedures in an attempt to save their questionable tooth. Dental implants, therefore, can often provide the best possible outcome for many patients.

Additionally, several research studies have shown better success rates for dental implant procedures versus root canals. The Journal of Oral Implantology published one such study which showed that dental implants for single teeth are over 98% successful even after a period of 7 years and that the patients in the study experienced no bone loss from the implants. The rate of failures for root canals was higher. Abscesses can cause root canals to fail, at which point the patient must undergo surgery to fix the infection. 5% of root canals were shown to fail, and patients who have undergone repeated root canals had even higher rates of failure – research shows failure rates ranging from 12 to 63%.

Aside from the health considerations, aesthetics are immensely important for many patients, and surprisingly, saving a patient’s natural tooth may actually have a less appealing cosmetic result than removing the tooth and replacing it with a dental implant. This is because keeping a patient’s own tooth may require their dentist to raise their gum line and expose a tooth’s roots so that a new crown can be anchored there. This can create an unattractive result, and patients should always speak to their dentists about how their tooth will look in the end if they choose to preserve it via a traditional endodontic procedure.

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