I remember my first denture lecture as an undergraduate. The head of department stood at the lectern and said;
“Now you must never forget, that dentures are only better than nothing. Nothing at all that is! They are not nor should ever be considered to be replacement teeth. Remember that.”
I guess I didn’t fully comprehend what he meant until some time later when I met my first patient with a severely resorbed mandible and tried desperately to get a U shaped piece of pink acrylic with teeth set into it to sit straight and be still so my patient could eat and talk properly….I failed of course.
The patients don’t call them ‘false’ teeth for nothing.
And so my implant journey began. Discovering that placing just 2 implants in the edentulous mandible can totally transform a miserable and malnourished old lady to a healthy happy individual changed my life and hers.
Current Focus
- to persuade as many general dentists as possible that they can provide the prosthetics for simple implant cases. It really is easier than prepping, applying chord and taking impressions for conventional crowns
- Same day immediate loading with fabrication of an integral titanium frame under durable long term composite teeth – used for short span and full arch situations
Over the past 3 years I have been spending time in Bologna with arguably one of the best implant surgeons in the world, Dr Marco Degidi. Marco has developed the only system that allows construction and placement of a long term aesthetic prosthesis in full arch immediate loading cases.
It’s an incredible step forward for those of us who have hitherto struggled with fitting and maintaining temporary acrylic bridges in these challenging cases.
With Dr Marco Degidi in Bologna
