Grand Rapids Dental Implants - Best Choice Dental Implant and Denture Center - Dr. Timothy Moore

 

TECHNOLOGY

In the last 10 years the changes in dental technology and in dental implant technology in particular have been nothing short of amazing.  Best Choice Dental Implant Center has invested heavily in the latest proven technology to make your treatment safe, effective, efficient and truly state-of-the-art.

CLINICAL TECHNOLOGY

Clinical technology employed at Best Choice Dental Implant Center includes:

     1.  Intraoral cameras, so you see what we see
     2.  Computers in each treatment room
     3.  Computer imaging for smile design
     4.  Digital xray sensors that provide high quality images for diagnosis, while reducing your 
          xray exposure by 70-90% compared to the old fashioned film based xrays
     5.  Digital panoramic xrays.  We were one of the first offices in Michigan to invest in this 
          technology over 12 years ago.  Digital panoramic images provide a great deal of information
          on the location of important anatomical structures, which is especially important for safe
          oral surgery and dental implant surgery.
     6.  3-D Digital Cone Beam Tomography.  This is the latest in digital imaging and will soon become
          the gold standard of imaging for surgical planning for multiple dental implants and other 
          oral surgical procedures.  It allows the oral surgeon and the prosthodontist to see the bone, 
          the teeth, the sinuses and the nerves in three dimensions. (Figs. 3-6)
     7.  VIP Dental Implant Planning software for computerized planning of dental implant 
          surgery.    
     8.  VIP Surgical Guides for guided implant "keyhole" surgery. 
          Computer planning makes possible the fabrication of CAD-CAM designed and computer
          manufactured implant surgical guides to assist the implant surgeon in the positioning of the
          dental implants.  Surgical guides are mandatory for placing the implants at the correct angle
          and at the correct depth in the bone, while avoiding important anatomical structures such as
          the maxillary sinus or the main nerve trunk in the lower jaw (Inferior Alveolar Nerve). 
          CAD-CAM designed surgical guides make for more predictable surgery with little or no
          bleeding, swelling, or discomfort.  This makes for faster healing and a quicker recovery.

CONE BEAM TOMOGRAPHY

At Best Choice Dental Implant and Denture Center we are fortunate to have a New Tom 3G Tomograph operated by Smart Beam 3D located across the hall from our office.  We are one of the few dental offices in the entire U.S. and the only prosthodontic dental implant office in Michigan to have one of these high tech machines on site.

Digital Cone Beam Tomography is similar to the million dollar hospital CT scanners at major local hospitals, but the unit operated by Smart Beam 3D has several significant advantages over the hospital CT scanners:

      1.  The smaller Cone Beam scanner (Fig. 1 & 2) exposes you to 98x LESS radiation than the 
           large hospital CT scanners, reducing your exposure to xrays and making your treatment
           safer.  

       

   

Fig.1
   Patient on scanner table of New Tom Cone Beam Scanner operated by Smart Beam 3D

Fig. 2
   Patient laying prone on table during the scan.
Unlike hospital machines, only the head is scanned
and not the entire body.

     
     2.  The Cone Beam scanner is designed specifically for images of the head and neck.  The 
           resulting images are of higher quality and have more detail than images produced by hospital
           CT scanners.  (Fig. 3 & 4)

   
Fig. 3
   Three dimensional digital xray image
produced by the New Tom  3G Scanner 		Fig. 4
   Computer display of skull prior to computer
manipulation of the image

 
     3.  The cost of the the Cone Beam scans are significantly less than hospital scans. 

   

Fig. 5
   Top image is a typical 2 dimensional panoramic view.  Notice the position of the nerve below the teeth.
The bottom row of images are a series of six images along the path of the nerve.  Knowing the precise location of this nerve is critical when placing dental implants in the lower jaw.

      
     4.  Smart Beam 3D technicians are dental technicians and dentists trained to take images
           (Fig. 5 & 6) for dental implant and oral surgery.  Smart Beam 3D technicians have taken
           hundreds of scans for oral surgery and for dental implant surgery.  Hospital radiology
           technicians, on the other hand, are often unfamiliar with the techniques necessary to take
           high quality diagnostic images necessary for planning for the intricate surgery to place dental
           implants.  

 
 Fig. 6
   The image on the upper left is a view of the lower jaw.  The yellow cross hatch lines are the "slices" of the jaw.  Each numbered "slice" is displayed in the center of the computer screen.  Precise measurements can be made on these images.
 

VIP (Virtual Implant Planning) IMPLANT PLANNING SOFTWARE

As amazing as the images from Smart Beam 3D are, they only provide us with visual information, but not a good way to actually use the information during surgery.  VIP Implant Planning software allows us to use this information to plan your implant surgery on a computer.    The digital information provided by Smart Beam 3D is converted into a three dimensional image of the bone, sinuses, nerves and also the location of the prosthetic teeth (Fig. 7).  All of these structures can be manipulated, moved and rotated on the computer monitor (Fig. 8).  This allows the oral surgeon and the prosthodontist to treatment plan the surgery together.  This teamwork sets Best Choice Dental Implant and Denture Center apart from other providers who are working in separate offices without the benefit of the three dimensional images and the surgical planning on a computer.

   
Fig. 7
   Three dimensional image of the lower jaw.  Notice the location of the nerve and how the implants have been placed to avoid the nerve.      

Fig. 8
   This is an image from above the lower jaw looking down on the implants. Again, notice the location of the nerve relative to the implants

 

 
   
Fig. 9
   When planning implant placement, it is critical to know where the final prosthetic teeth will be located.   This illustration shows the final position of the teeth for an implant supported denture.

Fig. 10
   This is the same denture illustrated in Fig. 9.  With the implants properly positioned, the retention screw holes can be placed in positions that will not interfere with the final esthetic result

 

 
   
Fig.11
   Sagittal view of the lower jaw bone, the dental implants and the prosthetic teeth.		 Fig. 12
   Sagittal view of the lower jaw.  The position of the implant can be manipulated on the computer to make sure it is entirely encased in bone, and that the alignment does not interfere with the position of the replacement teeth.

 

VIP SURGICAL GUIDE, A PRECISION SURGICAL GUIDE FOR IMPLANT PLACEMENT

As you can see, the Smart Beam 3D images and the VIP Implant Planning Software are incredible tools in the planning for implant surgery, but without a good way to transfer this information to surgery, it would provide us with little more than fancy pictures and approximate measurements and angles.  This is where Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD-CAM) comes in,  and this is what separates Best Choice Dental Implant Center apart from other implant surgery offices.

   
Fig13
    Image of the upper jaw, the prothetic teeth and the final implant position.		 Fig. 14
   Positioning of Stabilization Pins that anchor and stabilize the surgical guide during keyhole implant surgery.

Using the VIP software, we design a surgical guide (Fig. 13 and 14) that is used by our oral surgeon.  The surgical plan is emailed to a manufacturing facility where they use CAD-CAM to manufacture the VIP Surgical  Guide.  The VIP Surgical Guide is a hard plastic replica of the prosthetic teeth, but with titanium drill guides replacing the teeth (Fig. 15 and 16).  The drill guides control the angle and the depth of the implant sites, so that the implants can be placed with great  precision. 

   
Fig. 15
   Upper jaw bone with Nobel Guide surgical guide and stabilization pins		 Fig. 16
   The drill guide sleeves are placed precisely to control the depth and angulation of the implant placement.  All the surgery is done through the drill guides, including the placement of the implants.  No cuts in the gum, no sutures, no bleeding and little or no discomfort.

This remarkable technological advancement makes it possible to do "keyhole" surgery.  With keyhole surgery, it may not be necessary to cut the gums and peel them back to visualize the bone like many surgeons do.  Instead, all of the surgery may be  done through the surgical drill guide sleeves
(Fig. 16). 

There may be no cuts in the gum, no sutures, no bleeding and many times little or no discomfort.  This is possible, because our surgeon has already "seen" the bone, the nerves and the sinuses on the computer. 

The VIP Surgical Guide is so precise that it allows our surgeon to place the implants at the correct angle and within 0.4mm of where the implants were planned on the computer.  The VIP Surgical Guide makes surgery faster, safer and more precise which results in faster healing, less discomfort and more predictable results.

Best Choice Dental Implant and Denture Center is a leader in bringing all of this remarkable technology to West Michigan.  Using joint treatment planning between a Board Certified Dental Implant Surgeon and a Board Certified Prosthodontist, Cone Beam CT scans from Smart Beam 3D, VIP computerized treatment planning in 3D and the CAD-CAM  designed surgical guides, Best Choice Dental Implant and Denture Center is truly your BEST CHOICE  for your implant and prosthodontic treatment. 

Why would you go anywhere else?  Call Best Choice Dental Implant and Denture Center to schedule an evaluation today at 616-988-6099 or 800-374-7047.