Dental Implant Placement by the General Dentist (video)

This survey & specific comments made are dangerous for the dental profession. They are driven by certain implant companies that come to mind & thus dollar driven by the companies & practitioners (as noted above) who may not be patient-first. I have been involved in teaching Dentists & Post-Doc Periodontal residents for over 25 years implant surgical & restorative procedures. Implying that placing implants is easy shows how little your reader actually knows about it. It is rare that we see Straightforward cases. The SAC Classification (Straightforward, Advanced & Complex) should be standard of care with the placement of implants; there is no mention of this. This should be the guiding light of teaching the undergraduates which we have implemented at Temple University. The thought that placing an immediate implant in the anterior section in a high-med lip line patient with thin gingiva (a very Complex Case) is really leading your readers plaintiff’s lawyers who will eat them alive. I recently removed a non-restorable implant in site #7 by a dentist who may have read your comments! This has left the patient requiring future multiple surgical procedures of soft & hard tissues. Guess who suffers the most? The unknowing patient. In addition, the bone loss & deformities that I saw in this case are non-repairable as this poorly placed non-restoratve-driven implant involved loss of adjacent hard/soft tissues by already botched surgery which the dentist reattempted soft tissue procedures to correct. If you cannot treat the botched case; the case of peri-implantitis or a failing implant then you should not be placing implants. If you are not familiar with all the GBR procedures & plastic surgical procedures then you should not be placing implants. The “Team” approach as the medical model has shown for decades still is in the patient’s best interest & will achieve the most predictable results for the benefits of our patients. You will become a wealthy dentist by doing the procedures you are good at time in & time out which you have been adequately trained to do. If this includes implant placement with a mini-residency then good luck; if it involves a weekend warrior course get a good defense lawyer. If you place implants & understand the SAC Classification & use that as your guide then you know what I am talking about & you will be in a safer position than the dentist who thinks you should be the one who fill your extracted sites with an implant that you should be placing.

Robert Levine DDS
Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology

Clinical Professor in Periodontics & Implantology
Kornberg School of Dentistry
Temple University

Clinical Associate Professor in Periodontics, Implantology & Perio-Prosthesis University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine

Private Practice at The Pennsylvania Center for Dental Implants & Periodontics
Philadelphia, PA