Dental Implants

Advanced Dental Implant Technology

Dental implant technology has been evolving at a rapid pace. You don’t want outdated treatment, but you also don’t want unproven technologies. Fortunately you have Dr. Scharf on your side. His position as Clinical Assistant professor in the Department of Periodontics and Implant Dentistry at New York University College of Dentistry brings you unique benefits. Dr. Scharf is exposed to new implant technologies and has the opportunity to evaluate them in the University setting before ever bringing them to his patients. No practitioner without a faculty appointment can bring you this benefit.

Dental Implants placed by Implant Specialist in Long Island NY

There is no one implant design that is right for every situation and every patient. Dr. Scharf places dental implants from top tier implant companies including Nobel Biocare, Straumann, Astratech, Lifecore Biomedical, 3I and Ankylos.

Fast implant integration. Dr. Scharf uses the most advanced implant surfaces. These surfaces enable the implants to many times fuse with the bone is as little as 8 weeks. This means you get your new teeth faster. Dr. Scharf has been using this technology successfully for years now. Unfortunately for some patients, there are still other practitioners who routinely make their patients wait 6 months of more by clinging to outdated old fashioned implant designs and protocols.

Single stage implant surgery. Implant protocols presented to the profession in 1984 recommended submerging dental implants under the gum during the healing phase. This meant that two surgeries were needed for implant placement. The first surgery to place the implant and the second to uncover the implant. Subsequent research proved that implants can have the same high degree of success if submerged or if a healing abutment is placed at the time of surgery. The healing abutment eliminates the need for an uncovering surgery. Sometimes when a bone graft is done, or if a removable denture overlies the healing implant site, submersion is still needed. But most time submersion is not. Dr. Scharf only submerges an implant when biologically necessary to facilitate integration with the bone. This results in faster treatment times and less surgery. Unfortunately for some patients, there are still other practitioners who routinely submerge implants because they cling to outdated treatment methods. They have not updated their treatment approach as the science of implant dentistry has progressed. For patients unfortunately, such approaches mean longer treatment times and more surgery.

Computer technology has made great improvements to implant surgery. Dr. Scharf uses an iCat computerized dental scanner and Simplant software to plan the implant placement virtually. This can be translated to the patient using surgiguide templates. These computer generated templates allow for the virtual treatment plan to be transferred to the patient during implant placement. These templates allow for implant placement many times without even opening the gums.

Flapless Implant Placement

Using advances in computer imaging and CAD-CAM template design, many implants cases can now be treated without ever opening the gums. This is called Guided surgery. Dr. Scharf has the expertise to know if this therapy is right for you. Patients who are good candidates for this type of treatment usually have the following criteria:

  1. They have adequate bone such that bone grafting or augmentation will not be needed at the time of surgery.
  2. The shape of the underlying bone is such that the implants can be placed in the proper position (not too deep or too shallow) without modifying the contour of the underlying bone.
  3. The gum tissue overlying the implant site is adequate. There are two types of gum tissue in the mouth, firm immovable gingival, and loose moveable mucosa. In general it is preferable to have implant surrounded by firm pink gingiva. Often times if an implant is surrounded by mucosa the gum tissue pulls away from the implant and can cause discomfort. It also makes good oral hygiene difficult. With flapless surgery the periodontist has no control of what type of tissue ultimately surrounds the implants. When a flap is made the tissue can be manipulated to maximize the possibilities that gingival will surround the implant.
  4. The patient can open their mouth wide enough to accommodate the instrumentation. Guided surgery requires longer instrumentation than nonguided surgery. Patients with limited opening may not be able to have guided implant placement because it may not be possible to get the instrumentation into their mouths.
Implant Specialist on Long Island, Dr. Scharf, recommends Dental Implants to replace Missing Teeth

Sequential Extraction Implant dentistry

Many times a patient has a full compliment of teeth but there are in such poor condition that they all need to come out and be replaced with dental implants. The goal of sequential extraction implant treatment is to keep the patient in a fixed temporary bridge and avoid a full denture as an interim restoration. In such a case 3-4 teeth are used to support a fixed acrylic temporary bridge. Teeth that are not supporting the temporary bridge are extracted and dental implants are placed. Once the implants fuse with the bone the temporary bridge is connected to and supported by the implants. At this point the remaining natural teeth are extracted. In short, the patient goes from a temporary bridge supported by their natural teeth to one supported by implants and then on to the final restoration without ever having to be in a denture. This avoids the psychological trauma of seeing oneself without teeth. Most patients comment that they feel like they never even lost their teeth as the transition from teeth to implants was so seamless.

Most patients comment that they feel like they never even lost their
teeth as the transition from teeth to implants was so seamless.

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