Nobel Biocare World Conference 2005 Las Vegas

Reporting by: Dr. Gary Kaplowitz

OsseoNews.com was pleased to attend the Nobel Biocare 2005 Conference. We offer our review of the conference here. Please feel free to add your own comments.

We congratulate Nobel Biocare on its 2005 World Conference in Las Vegas which hosted over 6,000 denitsts, physicians and auxiliaries making it the largest dental implant meeting in history. The main program consisted of world-class clinicians and researchers presenting their cases and findings. Needless to say, the bar has been raised yet again.

There were many presentations involving flapless surgery and CT-scan generated surgical guide stents. The stent was sued to position the tissue punch and pilot drill. After inserting the implants a provisional or permanent prosthesis was delivered. The techniques presented emphasized accuracy of implant placement and delivery of prefabricated prostheses.

Another major paradigm shift involved immediate loading. There has been a gradual but dramatic change in orientation. Instead of waiting months for osseointegration, the trend now is for immediate placement of a provisional or permanent prosthesis. The patient walks out not only with implants but more importantly, with teeth.

Another interesting aspect of the conference was the attendance of general dentists. Most of the GPs we met were at the conference to learn more about diagnosis, surgical placement and restoration so they could go back to their own countries and perform this service to their patients. Many GPs from the U. S. were there for the same reason. But we talked with many GPs from the U. S. who were concerned about litigation and malpractice issues and explained how this influenced their decisions on what to do. Quite a contrast between the U. S. and the rest of the world.

The most exciting part of the conference involved the presentation of products under development. One of the most promising is a new design in implant morphology. This implant is self-tapping which requires less drilling. It also has a long neck emerging from a platform narrower than the implant body which creates a thick seal of connective tissue around the implant. Preliminary data based on 474 cases over 26 months demonstrated 98% success. A European team has developed another new design with a concavity from the most coronal thread to the platform. It too produces a thick collar of connective tissue around the implant. Both teams worked independently and it is interesting that both produced a new implant design that creates a thick collar of connective tissue around the neck of the implant to ultimately produce a better seal.

Nobel Biocare is planning the next World conference for 2007. Mark your calendars!!