Implant clinician and practice principal Selvaraji Balaji discusses the benefits of the Ossix range of bone regeneration materials and the new DS PrimeTaper implant.
Since I opened my practice, The Gallery Dental and Implant Centre in Buckingham in 2008, we have grown to become a leading implant referral centre performing implants, bone grafting, bone augmentation and soft tissue augmentation for even the most complex cases.
I am also the founder of the Academy of Soft and Hard Tissue Augmentation (ASHA), which provides courses to teach and mentor fellow clinicians using the latest augmentation skills and techniques.
Solving restorative challenges
Bone regeneration is an integral part of implant surgery. For the majority of my surgical cases I now use the Ossix range of bone regeneration materials from Dentsply Sirona - specifically Ossix Plus, Ossix Volumax and Ossix Bone - to solve a range of common regenerative challenges.
Ossix Plus is an ossifying, resorbable collagen membrane that resists degradation when exposed for three to five weeks and maintains barrier functionality for four to six months. I prefer to use this membrane as I know it will not disappear within weeks, it will hold the necessary biomaterials in place for a longer period than other regenerative materials and that in turn will deliver far better treatment outcomes.
Ossix Bone is a sponge-like ossifying block for true bone formation for use in intraosseous defects, socket preservation and internal sinus lifts. I find it easy to use in any form of socket, mixing it with blood or saline so it expands well. It gives me the confidence that in three to four months’ time, when I go back into the surgical site, I will find decent bone which is good enough for placing the implant.
As with all materials, there are particular techniques that are required to handle Ossix Bone correctly. During socket grafting, it is important to avoid packing in too much of the material. If it is packed in with tight suturing, it will cause discomfort for the patient when the material naturally expands. Therefore pack it in gently and lightly suture to avoid any ongoing problems.
Ossix Volumax is a thick, volumising collagen scaffold that expands when wet to easily adapt and adhere to bone. It is a great material to give volume for a buccal defect or where there is bone around the implant site that needs the added volume of soft tissue thickness.
My advice for users of Ossix Volumax is to always wet the membrane with blood or saline to allow it to expand before placement. If it is placed too dry it will instead expand naturally within the mouth which may also cause bruising and discomfort to the patient.
Introducing DS PrimeTaper
When I first opened my practice I used to use the Dentsply Sirona Astra Tech TX implant system before moving on to Astra Tech EV. However, in January 2022 Dentsply Sirona launched the new DS PrimeTaper implant system to the UK and Irish market, building on the success of Astra Tech EV.
PrimeTaper is a very straightforward and easy-to-use implant system. The drilling sequence and handling of PrimeTaper is a great improvement on EV and because it is a tapered implant, it can still work in compromised bone, providing excellent primary stability with the bone that is available. The restorative side is fantastic as well and I find the system ideally suited for immediate loading cases.
I have used PrimeTaper in a handful of cases where I have performed a bone graft and placed the implant nine months later; in these cases the bone is softer than native bone, but PrimeTaper can still achieve phenomenal primary stability.
PrimeTaper’s performance has impressed me so much that it will be the only implant in my inventory from now on; when you know a system works so well, it makes sense to use it for all indications.
Unmatched support
The digital workflow is central to successful treatment outcomes, from the initial intraoral scans using Primescan, the design and manufacture of the restoration in house, right through to final placement. It works really well not just for me and my team, but also for our patients, particularly for aesthetic anterior cases and the provision of same-day restorations.
One of the reasons I love working with Dentsply Sirona is that the company provides the complete solution - from implants, bone grafting materials, intraoral and extraoral scanners, right through to 3D printers.
More than that, the customer support from the team is fantastic as well. I can pick up the phone, email or text and they ensure everything is delivered in the right place at the right time. Even though Dentsply Sirona is a big company known around the world, it still feels like a small family-run company to me.
I believe Dentsply Sirona is way ahead of the competition, helping dental professionals to do our job to the best of our ability and I would like to thank them for that. With excellent products and unmatched customer support, why would I go anywhere else?
To find out more about Dentsply Sirona’s advanced DS PrimeTaper Implant System, click here.