Basal Implants also known as Cortical implants are an advanced implantology system which utilizes the basal (cortical) portion of the jaw bones for the retention of the dental implants. Basal implants are made of a single piece of Titanium metal uniquely designed to be accommodated in the basal (cortical) bone areas. The basal bone area provides excellent bone quality for the retention of these unique and highly advanced implants.
The teeth are usually situated in less dense bone portions of the jaw bones called the alveolar or crestal bone of the jaw. This less dense alveolar or crestal bone area gradually starts getting resorbed and recedes once the teeth are lost. The bone which ultimately remains after regression of the alveolar bone following loss of teeth is the basal (Cortical) bone which lies below the alveolar bone.The basal bone is less prone to bone resorption and infections. It is highly dense, corticalized and offers excellent support to implants.
Basal implants are used either for teeth replacement or as an anchor for different types of removable dentures such as All in 4 and All in 6. However, the usual aim of the procedure is a fixed structure to replace as many as 12 teeth on each jaw. Basal implants are considered to be the best choice for individuals with moderate or severe atrophy of the jaw and can possibly avoid the need for bone augmentation
With Basal implants, the final prosthesis (crown) is fixed on the titanium post within 48 hours of the implant surgery, saving time and costs considerably. This procedure is called “Immediate Loading”. In the case where conventional implants are associated with grafting procedures or bone augmentation, the total treatment time will be about 6 months to 1 year. With Basal implants the need for a second surgery to fix the abutment and the need of interim / provisional dentures are totally eliminated
Another major advantage of Basal implants is the fact that they can be successfully placed in smokers or diabetic patients or in individuals with chronic or destructive periodontitis.
We are today able to provide implants to patients where bone augmentation procedures and implants placed by oral and maxillofacial surgeons have failed.
The mainstream in dental implantology today uses conventional screw-type (and two-stage) implants. But the limitations provided by the native bone either prevent treatments at all or make them complicated and lengthy. Through this technology many patients could not be treated with implants at all, even though they needed and wanted them.
At the turn of the century, the time had come for us to search for true progress in dental implantology. That this would require a new way of thinking has become obvious, since the development of traditional implant systems seem to have been locked in attempts to modify implant surfaces. The inherent limitations of cylindrical and screw implants were, and are, unfortunately too often taken for granted and never seem to be questioned. On the contrary – more and more complicated and at the same time risky surgical procedures are being included into routine protocols, and bone graft donor regions are identified, all in an attempt to adapt the shape of the bone to the shape of the conventional implant rather than the other way around. In doing so, great effort is expended to force the build-up of bone in regions of the body where there had never been any bone in the first place or where the body had (often for good reasons) eliminated any bone that may once have been present. These bone augmentation procedures are associated with additional pain, considerable risks, and enormous cost. The require treatments often over many years and in some case stable results are nevertheless not achieved. That such attempts are made at all, is usually justified by pointing out the alleged absence of alternatives.
But alternatives, true alternatives, exist – and they work.
The CORTICAL IMPLANTOLOGY principle has allowed to provide fixed restorations for every patient, without exception, who has ever approached for them. The distal areas of the mandible no longer present with borderline situations from the point of view of the implantologists, nor does the maxillary posterior region. The situation has improved tremendously. We are today able to provide implants to patients where bone augmentation procedures and implants placed by oral and maxillofacial surgeons have failed.
Here are a few advantages of the immediate loading implants:IMPLANTS PERMITTING FIXATION OF TEETH WITHIN 3DAYS!
* Fast recovery of masticatory function (no teeth to fixed teeth in 72 hrs.)
* Immediate recovery of aesthetics
* No intermediary removable dentures
* Protection of soft tissues around implants from unfavourable masticatory trauma thereby aiding rapid healing
* Mostly done employing minimally invasive “Key-hole” implant techniques facilitating super-fast recovery.
* Minimum bone loss
* Favorable bone formation / mineralization around implants
* No need for bone augmentation procedures / sinus lifts etc. The varied designs available under immediate loading protocols permit choosing specific implant designs for each bone situation. Whereas, with conventional implants, the bone needs to be modified to suit them through cumbersome bone augmentation procedures.
* Peri-implantitis… the most dreaded condition leading to failure of implants… is nearly eliminated due to the advanced “no-itis” surfaces employed in these implants
* Immediate load basal implants can be employed even in “little or no-bone” situations employing techniques such as tubero-pterygoid engagement, zygmoatic bone engagement and inferior alveolar nerve bypass.
* Cost Savings
smile before dental implants and fixed teethsmile after the fixed teeth in 72 hours
Implants for everybody
IMPLANTS PERMITTING FIXATION OF TEETH WITHIN 3DAYS!
In the early days of implantology mainly members of the implantologists family and a few rich people received implants. Implants were exotic, and available only in a few places in the world. Prof. L. Linkow (New York), the motor of modern implantology, placed his first (subperiosteal) implant 6 weeks after leaving the university in 1956. He continued working and inventing and teaching for more than 4 decades. On the other side of the atlantic ocean, the University of Zurich was condemning dental implants until 1986. The protagonists in this institution were 30 years behind (and they probably still are).
Dental implantology was for many years available only for people at the top of the pyramid. It was expensive. This fact was partly the result of a lack of exchange of knowledge between the countries: practitioners who “knew” could not work in other countries: they needed licenses and language skills and the will to roam.
Another reason why not everyone can get implants until today is rigidness of science. Universities are no longer the promotors of inventions and the origin of “the future”. Our modern Universities have turned to be the preservers of the past and the antiques.
In western countries health insurances were another obstacle to progress: modern therapies were not refunded and treatments in foreign countries were excluded as well. This has kept patients dependent on local treatment providers and their skills.
What has changed however, is the customer, – the patient. Patients became mobile and they are getting well informed through the internet. They decide about the therapy and they seek actively the best for them. The modern patient does not rely on the advice of “his” doctor, he decides for himselve and he strips of the ties created by the preservers of science, he doesn’t respect political borders, not regulations of his health insurance. As both travelling and implantology has become cheaper in relationship to the average income, much more patients can afford implants,- at least in foreign countries.
But all this is only a step in the right direction: implantology will ultimately reach to bottom of the pyramid,- the tremendously big market. On the way to this aim, conventional dental implantology will definitely loose the race. Those who live on the bottom of the pyramid cannot come to regular recall sessions. They cannot start lengthy and expensive bone buildup procedures: if these co-livers on the planet of ours have the dollar, they have and want to spend it, and they must get results right away.
Their common sense will decide for a treatment option, which offers:
Implant treatment without any bone augmentation
Implant treatment without any waiting periods
Implant treatment without complex, multiple re-entry procedures
Implant treatment for patients with critical general conditions and diseases
Implant treatment for patients which have lost implants before (but not the hope for treatment)
Implant treatment for smokers and drug-addicts
What once was a vision has become reality. More and more dentists in many countries have come to believe in the right way, finding the right treatment for their patients. The community of basal implantologists is growing and flourishing.
