Q

Question from Dr. W. Henry Pond

I’m looking for the clause in your implant informed consent that addresses continued facial growth.

After having read your paper in JOMI (Lifelong Craniofacial Growth and the Implications for Osseointegrated Implants: 2013) I feel that it would be foolish to proceed without it.

Thank you.

A

Answer by Dr. Oded Bahat

Thank you for your request. Here is the clause you requested:The skull continues to grow throughout life. The implant remains fixed in space. These changes occur even after skeletal growth has ceased. These are normal physiological changes of the skull and face during the aging process. It may result in the vertical discrepancies as well as open contact between the implant crown and the adjacent teeth. Further changes may include early thread exposure on the implants.

Q

Question from Dr. W. Henry Pond

Is there an optimum amount of torque suggested in placing the interim appliance in an immediate load screw retained appliance?

A

Answer by Dr. Oded Bahat

I always tried for 40 N, regardless of immediate vs. delayed protocol. Obviously in areas of greater occlusal forces greater torque values are more critical.

Q

Question from Virginia Van Osdel, DDS

How do zirconia implants compare to titanium implants with regard to success rates and longevity?

A

Answer by Prof. Dr. Raif Kohal 

To answer the dentist’s question quickly: There are no longterm success rates of zirconia implants. Dr. Spies*, a colleague of mine, who is working with me on the subject zirconia implants, collected data on clinical investigations that presented survival rates and marginal bone loss with zirconia implants. We did not include publications that did not report on bone loss like Oliva et al. 2010 (who in their report had an overall implant success rate after 5 years of follow-up of 95% – however, no info on bone loss!).

In summary, publications, besides the ones presented by us (Kohal et al. 2012 and 2013), showed that the zirconia implants for single tooth reconstructions and short fixed dental prosthesis seem to have similar survival/success rates like titanium implants after (short) observation times of 1 to 5 years. Long term data cannot be found yet.

I hope this helps our colleague.

*to request a copy of the Dr. Spies’s list of the literature reviewed, please click here.