Dr. Michael Razzoog, professor of prosthodontics, said this new approach to replacing teeth saves time and causes less stress on mouths. Before this, patients typically had surgery to install anchors in their gums and waited months for their mouths to heal before getting their new teeth attached to the anchors.

By comparison, third-year prosthodontics student Dr. Bill Abbo installed Madalin's implants in one visit, and that night, Madalin ate steak for dinner.

Razzoog said the U-M School of Dentistry was the first dental school in the country to use the technique. Razzoog and Dr. Richard Scott, a U-M dentistry alum, performed the first such operation in North America in 2003.

While other U.S. sites are now offering the treatment, the University has the only known American dental school where students are learning the procedure. And U-M is teaching practicing dentists from around the country.

Here's how it works: Patients meet with a dentist for a preoperative consultation in which the patient gets a three-dimensional CT scan sitting in a chair in an open environment. Using the scan and computer software developed by Nobel Biocare, a model of the patient's oral structure is made. Both the 3-D image and the model help the team to determine where to place the implants and make the new teeth.

A surgical template, designed to fit the patient's mouth, guides the dentist in drilling four to eight holes through the gums and into the jaw bone, allowing implants to be held in place with titanium screws.

Youngjoo Lee, a dentist who returned to U-M for a specialist degree, installed lower teeth for Dale Carlsen of South Lyon. It was the first time she'd done the surgery herself, after observing others first, and she said the method made it easy.

Carlsen, who lost his teeth to diabetes, was also pleased. "I can eat with confidence. I'm not self-conscious.:

Fewer than 1,000 people worldwide have had the new procedure, which was released for use in the general public this summer.

Razzoog and Marianella Sierraalta, clinical associate professor of prosthodontics, have been training about 40 dentists a month to install implants this way, and they say it can reduce complications because it involves smaller incisions than the old method, giving less chance of infection and swelling.

Compared to removable dentures, the contrast is even greater, giving patients ability to eat what they want, more confidence in speaking, and not covering the roof of the mouth, like upper dentures typically do.

It's not for everyone. Razzoog said insurance does not cover the procedure, which costs about $12,000 for a full mouth of teeth at U-M, more for patients getting treated by a private practice dentist.

The primary audience for this technique is people who have already had problematic teeth extracted, perhaps those currently wearing dentures, Razzoog said. If patients need to have teeth pulled, they need to wait for their gums to heal after the extractions before having implants placed.

Sierraalta said she hopes to see modifications to the procedure to allow tooth extraction and implants on the same day.

Razzoog said that's just one way he sees the quick implants evolving, now that more dentists are beginning the practice. For example, they are now beginning to use it for patients missing just one or a few teeth, as opposed to needing all their lower teeth replaced.

For more information about the procedure, contact Razzoog at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry at (734) 763-3326.

SOURCE: University of Michigan School of Dentistry

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