Along with my support team I have been placing and maintaining implants since the early 1990s and I have placed
several thousand implants. As a practice we deal with whatever case comes through the door; some cases and referrals come from colleagues, and more than half are patient selfreferrals. Over the years I have placed most of the major systems from all the major manufacturers, but I finally decided that I wanted a simplified choice of placing only one system, rather than continually swapping between manufacturers for different components.
I had a number of discussions with our local Straumann representative who provided me with a wealth of information and critical data about the new Roxolid SLActive implants. I was particularly impressed with the load
carrying capacity and healing response, backed up with detailed research, and this to me was a winning combination.
At Minto we mainly place bonelevel implants and have found that Roxolid has a lot of advantages not available in other systems. The surgical handling system is very simple and placing the implant into the site is a streamlined and quick process and everything is clearly labelled and easy to work with. I really like the new Loxim transfer piece that comes as part of the implant. It makes release very easy and straightforward and I can get an implant into the site in less than 15 seconds.
Minto boasts an implant success rate of almost 100 per cent - we can go an entire year without failure. I feel it is
risky to try any system that is unproven and although Roxolid SLActive may not be the cheapest system out there, they are solidly reliable and dependable. Patient care must always be paramount and standards must be met. We can prove our success rates so why would we want to change anything?
Avoiding future problems
An increasing part of my work is dealing with referrals to our practice for implant complications, notably periimplantitis and broken implants. You get to see the bigger picture when you are looking at increasingly common
problems and mistakes. Implant dentistry has seen a phenomenal growth in the last 10 years so we will be seeing more and more incidences of peri-implantitis and the like over the coming years. Poor quality materials or lack of experience in placing implants can lead to serious complications. That’s why you must have a proven and reliable implant system, you don’t want cases coming back to you for re-treatment in several years time. We all have cases that we wish we’d done differently. We can only try to provide the best treatment currently available.
Patients must be informed and reassured about the products you are using. There is a price to be paid for quality dentistry and research, and just like choosing a car, some will pay for this and others won’t.