We are very particular about which implants we use at The Denture & Implant Clinic. They must have good long-term success rates and give patients ideal results. That is why we use Southern Dental Implants.
There are hundreds of implant companies in Europe. The commonly used companies include Southern, BTI, Nobel, Straumann, Biohorizons, and Ankylos, and there are countless others. Dental implants are kind of like modern cars – they are all pretty much the same. Let’s take Volkswagen for example: they use the same platform for a lot of their brands (e.g., Audi, VW, Skoda, and Seat). An implant is a rod of high-grade medical titanium that is threaded and has a rough surface to aid bone growth. The surfaces are roughened to slight differences on all implants, and then the company will have evidence to say theirs is the best. In fact, some large dental companies have five or six different brands of implants, and will say each one is the best! So, a lot like cars. The other differences in implants are:
- Sizes
- Shapes
- What you can use to restore the implant with
However, in essence, most of the big companies produce good implants.
So, let’s return to the question – how do you choose which one to use, and why do you choose to use Southern Dental Implants at The Denture & Implant Clinic? Here’s why.
The main reason is the angled head and the essential need to have a screw-retained crown
Southern produces an implant called the Co-Axis Implant, which to our knowledge is the only implant company to do so. This means the implant is straight, but the head of the implant is angled by 12-36 degrees.
We know from normal tooth anatomy that the bone, crown of the tooth, and root are not completely perpendicular, and Southern has tried to mimic this in their dental implant. See images below.
This all comes down to our aim of always trying to retain implants with screws. There are two ways to secure teeth/crowns onto implants – by a screw or by cement. Screw-retained is better, as studies show that excess cement can attract bacteria that can cause implants to fail. In addition, if you ever want to remove a crown from the implant, it is very difficult if it has been cemented in, and sometimes you even have to destroy the crown in the process. As we have thousands of implant patients at our clinic, we need to ensure we can get access to the implant easily if maintenance work needs to be carried out. Therefore, it’s always our aim to screw-retain crowns onto implants.
The main problem with using screw-retained crowns is that you need a hole in the tooth to house the screw. Once the screw has been tightened, a white filling is placed to cover this hole up. Ideally, you want the hole in the back of the tooth, as sometimes these fillings can stain and they won’t look nice if they are on the front portion.
Therefore, in summary, we need two things:
- The crown to be secured onto the implant with a screw
- The access hole for the screw to be on the inside part of the tooth (i.e., the biting surface and the part you don’t see when you are talking and smiling)
Normal Anatomy
Note the fact that the bone is not perpendicular and the crown is off at a slight angle to the bone.
If you are using a normal straight implant and you wanted to keep the screw hole on the inside part of the tooth as needed for good cosmetics, the image depicted below would happen. Notice the perforation of the bone. This can lead to problems in the future and often results in the implant dentist needing to perform a bone graft in the area, increasing costs to the patient.
Below is the special angled head implant that Southern has produced, which gets rid of this issue.
See what the implant looks like now when it’s placed:
Notice how the whole implant is placed in bone.
This angulation problem does not just happen on upper front teeth – it happens everywhere. See lower front teeth:
The concept works well when you want to avoid sinus augmentation. Notice how the bit that pokes out of the gum is nice and straight. This makes it easier when making the teeth, which means you get a better result. We’ll talk more about that later.
You can even use it when you want to avoid important structures like nerves.
So, all in all, angled implants have a lot of advantages over normal straight implants because the bone, nerves, and sinuses are always in tricky locations that need to be avoided. There are other advantages as well.
Surgical benefits
- They can be used immediately after tooth extraction – which means you can reduce the treatment time from nine months to as little as three
- They reduce the need for bone grafts – which means less pain, swelling, healing time, and cost for you
- Parallelism is increased in cases where multiple implants will be used – which means better long-term results
Prosthetic benefits
- The orientation is optimized, which enables a simpler restoration process
- The aesthetics are predictable and natural-looking, which is particularly important in front teeth
- Screw-retained restorations can be used
- Laboratory costs and component prices are reduced
- Standard prosthetic components can be used
These are the main benefits of using Southern Dental Implants. However, there are a more! Southern started out as a medical company manufacturing titanium plates for bone reconstructive purposes and hence has a long history in the field related to bone. The Southern Dental Implant branch was founded in 1988, which means it is one of the world’s oldest companies in this field with a rich history in research, development, and the production of innovative products.
Learn more
For more information on these implants and Southern Dental Implants reviews, please visit the website:
https://www.southernimplants.com
You can also learn more at our FAQs about our implant system.
We are always happy to talk more with patients about the type of implants we use and why. To schedule a consultation, call us at 020 8629 1226 today!
