Rik has just returned from a 3 day advanced course in advanced dental implant procedures in Frankfurt, Germany.

There he observed live surgery involving the most advanced procedures to treat patients with missing and failing teeth.

Patients attended with insufficient bone in areas requiring dental implants to replace missing teeth.

In the back part of the upper jaw a procedure called a sinus augmentation/graft procedure was carried out. This involved accessing and lifting the upper jaw sinus lining and placing an artificial graft material and occasionally simultaneous implant placement. The graft material encourages natural bone formation and this is allowed to heal with implant placement for about 6 months.

The best form of graft material is natural bone from the patient in another part of the mouth. In other areas with bone deficiency natural bone was taken either from the chin or back part of the lower jaw and fixated to the deficiency and allowed to heal. After 3-4 months this bone usually heals and corrects the deficiency to enable implant placement.

Where there were deficiencies making the area for implant placement too thin advanced procedures were learnt to expand the ridge avoiding a bone graft to allow simultaneous implant placement. Likewise where there were small deficiencies in bone height in the back part of the upper jaw simple techniques were observed to increase the height for simultaneous implant placement.

All in all a great 3 day experience which will benefit those of our patients with missing teeth, dentures and failed bridgework and crowns greatly in achieving fixed naturally looking and functioning teeth.