One of my favorite places to go is IKEA. I am amazed by the wonderful details they’ve made to make the furniture shopping experience a breeze. There are wonderful showrooms sure, but the actual warehouse is onsite so you can pick up the item you need that day. They have a daycare center for kids and even a café to get delicious Swedish meatballs if you’re so inclined. However easy the shopping experience is, the instruction workbook to “build it yourself at home” can sometimes be daunting; especially if this is your first build, and you’re clueless as to the right tools for your job.
Having the right instruments when we’re evaluating a patient’s need to replace a tooth with an implant is even more important. First, we use dental Cone Beam Computed Tomography or CBCT, to analyze the volume of bone present. We measure the height, width and depth of the bone, and identify any adjacent anatomical structures that need to be avoided or considered during implant placement.
Next, we take a 3D topographical scan of your teeth using an iTero Element scanner. This is the future!! We don’t need to take messy, gooey impressions anymore. The iTero can build a model of your teeth that we can then send to a lab to make the surgical guides that provide us with pinpoint accuracy for implant placement (See the back cover!). Another great benefit to digital treatment planning is an enormous elimination of excess waste from supplies that are usually discarded from traditional models and impressions.
Still, all these amazing tools and instruments remain worthless without the right talent to use them. Sometimes surgical procedures don’t always follow printed instructions like an IKEA workbook. I can recall several instances where an unexpected complication arose during the procedure that required an adjustment in the plans. When this happens you definitely want a provider that not only “knows” what to do, but has actually “done” it before. This takes a lot of training, until the training becomes a talent. There’s no question the Misch Implant Institute is the best place to get this education. Dr Warr and I have both attended and graduated from the surgical program offered by Misch, who very literally wrote the book on implant placement and restoration.
Whether you’re missing only one tooth, or would like your dentures to have new implant anchors to keep them in place while you’re eating your favorite meal, feel free to call our office and set up an implant consultation that can help provide you the confidence of a healthy smile for years to come.
