Implants
With over 80 years of combined implant experience our service team has expert knowledge on all current and discontinued systems. If you have any questions about implants, our specialists, Alex Rugh and Tony Megale, are just a phone call away. For assistance call them today at (800) 445-5941.
Working with O’Brien on your implant case
Dental implants are a treatment option that requires pre-planning, teamwork and specialized knowledge of the wide array of available implant systems. When you are working with a patient who is a candidate for implant restorations, you’ll want to begin by selecting your treatment team, one consisting of both an implant surgeon and an experienced implant laboratory.
The first step to a successful implant case, and by far the most important one, is pre-planning. Before any other procedure, make diagnostic casts of your patient’s upper and lower arches and send them to our laboratory. Next we will create a diagnostic wax-up. With the wax-up in hand, we can discuss your case in detail with you. Considerations such as vertical space, emergence profile, angulation, tooth placement and implant components can be addressed. In this way, we will know what you are expecting to achieve, and we can work with you to create a plan to accomplish it if possible.
At the same time, send your patient to the surgeon for an evaluation. The surgeon will examine your patient for bone structure, available space and placement options. Depending on the surgeon’s findings, the case may proceed as planned, or it may need to be revised, and a new wax-up designed.
Pre-planning is also the most important phase of the implant case with regard to patient acceptance. With the diagnostic wax-up, you have the opportunity to manage patient expectations, as well as generate a solid strategy for a successful outcome. The ultimate satisfaction will depend on the patient’s education and participation in his or her treatment plan.
With preplanning input from everyone involved in your implant case – the lab, the surgeon and the patient, a plan can be agreed upon. We will then supply an implant stent to the surgeon to ensure exact implant placement, and your treatment plan will be ready to be implemented.
Please be advised that the final determining factor for a successful outcome still lies with the actual implant placement. (Something the patient should be made aware of.) A variation to the placement at this point may make a measurable impact on the plan.
Because of the variety of available implant systems and the diversity of implant and combination cases, it is our policy to provide a written estimate for each implant case before lab work begins.
