Hello Everyone,

I am speaking with those of you who like to be a better doctor and who care to make a difference in the lives of so many people, who don’t have the knowkedge and skills and wisdom that we have as a trained professional.

Go to take classes from different professors and teachers even if you are a teacher and professor.

I was ecstatic and very happy that I went to the International Bone Symposium in Implant Dentisty at the UOP Arthur A. Dugoni’s school of dentistry on March 30 to April 1. We had excellent speakers /professors who came from all over the world and states of the United States.

The most important lesson that I have learned from this Symposium is in this slice from Dr. Ole Jensen’s presentation.

Secondly, I have immense admiration and inspiration for Mr. Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Jensen also has a quote from Lincoln.

There were so many things that I have learned and reviewed from this event and I enclose some of the handouts on the CE page of our website.

My goals of attending this conference and many other conferences and symposium have been to find ways to make dental implant affordable to the very poor people in the least traumatic surgery and least painful experience for our patients.

Yes, these have been my goals since I graduated from dental school 17 years ago. I also wanted to know what would be new and what I have not learned.

The most valuable, exciting, and applicable to my daily practice are the following. Everything needs to follow this concept PASS for success.

P= Primary wound closure
A= Angiogenesis/vascularization
S= Wound Stability
S= Space maintenance

1. Dr. BH Choi from South Korea, an oral surgeon and professor  at the Yonsei University has invented a flapless (Yes no flap at all) sinus lift/graft using crestal approach. There is minimal gingival punch and very atraumatic surgery. I feel that the lateral approach of sinus lift and graft will be obsolete in a few years.

His lecture was simple, well organized, to the point with beautiful uplifting music in proper places and moments even in recorded live surgery.

You can check out the technique and instruments at www.dioimplants.com.

2. Oseodensification Densah bur adapted to every implant system is used in oseotomy site for the implant placement to expand and retained the bone around the implant. Their website is www.versah.com.

3. Dentin Grinder, the KometaBio Dentin Grinder.

Dr. Ziv Mazor from Israel and his students had done so much researches and studies on the use of GROUND severe periodontal diseased or caries teeth as a bone grafting materials in past 4 years. What a genius idea. I was so thrilled to see the histologic studies of how the bone formed around the implants with this ground dentin enamel autogenous grafts. Even tooth with infected roots can be ground and used as autograft. You just can’t use the teeth with root canal therapy or composite/ amalgam restorations. All plaque calculus, composite and amalgam from the teeth need to be removed and cleaned thoroughly before putting them in the dentin grinder.

This technology/ discovery reduces the morbidity and trauma from taking bone from the ramus of mandible, chin or the hip for autograft material.

4. Inlay split graft and  Onlay particulate graft  are the safest in my hands and I feel most comfortable using Titanium mesh or Cytoplast nonabsorbable membrane with tacks covering a collagen membrane, combination of autograft, allograft, and xenograft like BioOss Collagen and let it heal for 9 months or more.

What is better is if you add rhBMP 2 to this combination, the healing time can be accelerated to 4-6 months.

5. Book flap and Island flap grafting techniques and many other distraction osteogenesis techniques from Dr. Ole Jensen were astounding. He  wrote a book vertical bone graft with other professors in this group.

6. Dr. Patrick Palacci from France taught us his beautiful work using pedicle and double pedicle gingival and connective tissue grafts with crestal incision 2 mm to the palatal side to get the most keratinized tissue for your implant. For me, I would De-epithelialize the distal palatal gingiva of the last molars in the maxilla, then collect the connective tissue in DP of this molar before going to the hard palate to reduce pain from the donor site.

By Dr. ChauLong Nguyen