BIOMET 3i: Is Providing Solutions-One Patient At A Time'
Compendium features peer-reviewed articles and continuing education opportunities on restorative techniques, clinical insights, and dental innovations, offering essential knowledge for dental professionals.
September 1, 2010
Volume 31, Issue 7, September 2010
Page(s):
Maggie Anderson, BIOMET 3i’s President, says, “At Biomet 3i, we’ve been doing a lot of work throughout the last year to understand the wants and needs of both patients and clinicians in order to plan our course into the future. We’re in the business of providing patients the ability to eat healthy food without pain or discomfort and to smile without self consciousness. It is our mission to do that by Providing Solutions—One Patient At A Time.”
Rather than thinking of its business in terms of the number of total procedures or products, the company focuses on each individual event between a clinician and a patient and how each event may require a different set of products or services from BIOMET 3i. “Our products and services fall into three distinct solutions: Comprehensive Treatment Solutions, Enhanced Knowledge Solutions, and Business Excellence Solutions,” Anderson notes. “These solutions provide a simple way for clinicians to be successful—one patient at a time.”
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According to Anderson, the most significant advancement in implant therapy is the understanding for what makes for the most successful procedure, from both an implant integration perspective, as well as a great esthetic result. “We have learned through the success of our NanoTite™ Tapered PREVAIL® Implant that an important factor for implant integration is site preparation and implant macrogeometry,” she explains. Once Bone-to-Implant Contact (BIC) and initial primary stability are achieved, the benefits of surface technology may be realized. “In terms of a great esthetic outcome, we believe that hard- and soft-tissue management can best be managed through our integrated platform switching implant designs. Platform switching (a larger-diameter implant combined with a smaller-diameter abutment) may assist to preserve the hard and soft tissue at the top of the implant. The NanoTite Tapered PREVAIL Implant is designed with integrated platform switching for hard- and soft-tissue management,” Anderson says.
“Additionally, our Encode® Impression System allows the clinician to keep the healing abutment on the implant, thereby not disrupting the tissue attachment that occurs in early healing. This means that a demanding patient gets the kind of smile they want.” This system allows clinicians to restore implants without the use of impression copings. The clinician simply makes a supragingival impression of the Encode Healing Abutment and sends it to the laboratory, which returns a patient-specific or stock abutment with a restoration ready for cementation.
Anderson acknowledges that patients’ demands are increasing. They don’t visit a clinician to get an implant; they want their smile and function back. They expect to walk out with a fixed provisional restoration, no longer satisfied with a “flipper.” Meeting these ever-increasing demands starts with the most important factor in implant integration—primary stability through BIC. Primary stability is particularly important when clinicians want to immediately load or provisionalize.
“Technology is moving at the speed of light in implant dentistry,” Anderson says. BIOMET 3i has long been focused on digital dentistry with its CAD/CAM patient-specific technologies that are simpler to use and improve the potential outcome of the final restoration on fit, longevity, and esthetics—features that are ideal for new-to-implant-dentistry general practitioners. “What clinician or patient does not want fewer visits, less chairtime, and a better esthetic outcome?” Anderson asks.
BIOMET 3i’s digital dentistry line is expanding rapidly with its entry into the crown and bridge business through collaboration with Renishaw—a leading manufacturer of in-lab dental scanning systems. Clinicians can now offer patients 3i® incise™ copings and frameworks in zirconia and precision copy milled bars [510(k) pending for precision copy milled bars scanned on Renishaw Systems. Not available for sale in the United States.]. These options are patient-specific and designed to result in beautifully crafted new smiles.
“CAMStructSURE® Precision Milled Bars are already a terrific solution for overdenture and fixed hybrid prostheses,” Anderson says. “I have yet to talk to a laboratory owner who has used our bars and doesn’t tell me that we have the best fit and finish in the industry.”
According to Anderson, digital dentistry will give clinicians the ability to treat their patients in less time, resulting in a more esthetic outcome, ultimately providing lower end-to-end treatment time. “We know that the future of implant dentistry will be digital,” Anderson says. “Our Encode® Healing Abutment ties together the digital highway from impression making to restoration.
Full-service implant companies, such as BIOMET 3i, will continue to invest heavily in R&D and clinical research to commercialize new solutions that are designed to improve integration success in challenging patient scenarios while providing beautiful smiles. “We have invested heavily in our new product introduction process and pipeline,” Anderson says. “We have a robust offering of new products with a focus on ease of use, great esthetic outcomes, integration success, and early/immediate loading.
“We are passionate about providing clinicians with solutions to treat one patient at a time, in less time and with esthetic outcomes,” Anderson continues. She believes that key product advances such as Biomet 3i’s Digital Dentistry Solutions—for example, intraoral scanning with Encode Healing Abutments [510(k) pending]—and expanding product offerings for 3i incise copings, frameworks and bars [510(k) pending for precision copy milled bars scanned on Renishaw Systems. Not available for sale in the United States.] will be at the forefront of these advances.
On the services side, the company provides clinicians with the education and clinical research to ensure they have the tools to confidently and effectively use these products. BIOMET 3i’s comprehensive educational continuum has more than 1000 education programs globally. Designed for all levels of expertise, these programs are delivered through a variety of media, including university settings, peer-to-peer education, and e-learning.
According to Anderson, in many geographies outside of the U.S., implants have become the standard of care. “Interestingly, the U.S. has been slower to adopt this protocol. As an example, in Italy and Spain, the level of implant penetration is almost four times higher than in the U.S. At BIOMET 3i, we are doing all we can through our clinical and patient education programs to help teach people about this treatment option for edentulous patients or those patients with individual missing teeth. Bone resorption occurs rapidly in edentulous patients, making frequent denture revision a way of life. What many fail to realize is that by having implants, the bone resorption slows and, in addition to having better function with a fixed restoration, this also helps to prevent bone loss.”
By 2030 more than 20% of the population will be 65 years and older. That demographic, combined with the extremely low penetration of implants in the United States, means that the future looks very bright for implant growth as the standard of care in the U.S. “More patients will have access to this treatment protocol as the level of education in universities and general clinical awareness increases,” Anderson says.
“We have a strong focus on providing our clinicians with the solutions to grow their practices and to educate patients about the benefits of implant dentistry,” Anderson concludes. “BIOMET 3i has always been the go to implant company when it comes to supporting clinicians with everything they need to build their practices—from vision and strategy to execution.”
BIOMET 3i
4555 Riverside Drive, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
(561) 776-6700
https://www.biomet3i.com
