Saving Time & Cost with the Patent™ Implant System’s Reduced Workflow

Most conventional dental implants involve a complex workflow with a relatively extensive chairtime, a wide range of instruments, specialized components and unpredictable costs.

However, Patent has recently formulated a streamlined workflow that addresses most of the pain points associated with the conventional system, specifically designed to reduce treatment costs, increase predictability, reduce overall chairtime and improve the patient experience.

The reduced workflow helps dentists reduce costs, reduce time, improve predictability, and improve the patient experience. It’s not about cutting corners or taking shortcuts but rather maximizing the implant system’s existing potential for optimal efficiency.

This article highlights the unique differences between the conventional workflow and the Patent™ Implant System’s reduced workflow.

Conventional Implant System vs. Patent™ Implant System

The conventional dental implant workflow involves more visits, more chairtime, and more procedural costs than the Patent™ implant system. The following is a brief summary of the Patent™ dental implant system’s unique differences from conventional implants:

• The impressions are taken during the surgical visit.
• No need for a second visit for the sole purpose of taking impressions.
• No need for healing abutments.
• Simpler and faster prosthetic delivery.
• No need for abutments, specialized implant crowns, screws, healing components, etc.
• Using regular (cheaper) prosthetics that don’t involve specialized fabrication.
• Significantly lower cost of components.
• Preparation in the laboratory rather than in the patient’s mouth.
• Simpler and faster final check-up.
• Reduced time, reduced costs, improved patient experience.

How Patent™ Reduces Overall Time

The impression can be taken at the time of surgery

With conventional implants, the surgery and impression taking are separated into two visits. The Patent™ dental implant system combines the two steps — the impression is taken at the time of the surgery, so there’s no need for a separate visit.

When you work with titanium or conventional implants, you have to separate the surgical visit and the impression-taking visit to account for bone remodeling and tissue recession. Taking impressions during the surgical stage will produce inaccurate results because the patient’s clinical situation would have changed by the time the restoration is prepared.

However, Patent™ dental implants have a proven track record with bone level and keratinized tissue stability after the surgery. Our 3-years retrospective study (Brüll, 2014) confirms that the marginal bone levels remain stable and, in some cases, even increase. And our 2-years prospective study (Becker, 2017) confirms that keratinized gingiva volume increases or remains stable.

Because of the assurance of tissue stability, dental professionals can take impressions during the surgical stage itself. As such, in the 45 minutes it takes to complete the surgery, you can also take accurate impressions, saving considerable time for yourself and the patient.

While the conventional system requires two dental visits of approximately 45 minutes each, the Patent™ implant system combines the two process steps into a single 45-minute session.

Time Saved: 45 Minutes

The prosthetic delivery is a lot faster

Prosthetic delivery with conventional implants is challenging and time-consuming. You have to unscrew the healing abutments, screw in the permanent abutment, check the torque, seal the screw channel, and perform numerous other challenging and time-intensive steps.

Patent™ dental implants don’t involve healing abutments, screws, or most of the other components necessary with traditional implants. As such, you have to simply cement the post and provide the restoration. The process is a lot simpler and faster.

With conventional implants, the prosthetic delivery takes approximately 45 minutes. But the Patent™ dental implant system brings that down to around 35 minutes.

Time Saved: 10 Minutes

The final check-up is a lot faster

With conventional implants, the final check-up is a complicated process because you have to ensure the optimal functionality of each implant component — and there are many components to examine. You have to access/ inspect the screws, re-tighten them if they’re loosening, seal the access holes and polish the restoration, etc.

The Patent™ implant system doesn’t include these kinds of components, so the final check-up is considerably faster. You just make sure that the gums are healthy and that there is no excess cement left. Simply a normal visual control where there’s no need to access/remove components to check the situation.

With conventional implants, the final check-up takes approximately 20 minutes. But the Patent™ dental implant system brings that down to around 10 minutes.

Time Saved: 10 Minutes

How Patent™ Reduces Overall Cost

There’s no need for healing abutments

The conventional implant system necessitates the attachment of healing abutments on implants placed below the tissue level. You need a transmucosal component to protect the implant and to prevent the surrounding soft tissues from closing over the implant. Healing abutments are attached as placeholders during the first visit to protect the implant and then unscrewed or retrieved during impression taking and the prosthetic delivery.

However, the Patent™ dental implant system doesn’t need an additional healing abutment because it already includes a transmucosal part. If the Patent™ implant is placed according to the instructions, it already includes a part that maintains the level of the soft tissues. As such, you don’t need a healing abutment.

There’s no need for abutments, screws, and other specialized components

Besides the healing abutment, the conventional implant system includes various other components, such as the final abutment, abutment screws, specialized implant crowns, etc. Many times the clinical situation requires advanced prosthetic solutions that have to be prepared by specialized laboratories, making them costly.

With the Patent™ dental implant system, you don’t need abutments, abutment screws, etc. All you do need, such as the glass-fiber post, comes co-packed with the implant. This gives you perfect cost control. Furthermore, the final restoration is performed with a conventional crown, which is far more affordable than special implant crowns.

Predictable and accurate cost estimates

The components used for conventional implant systems varies significantly from case to case depending on implant placement, angulation etc. Sometimes the lab has to utilize more expensive components than predicted, resulting in higher cost than in the estimate. This leads to uncertainty when communicating the price to the patient and could potentially have a negative impact on the margins. The more advanced solutions that are required, the more the labs will charge for their expertise.

The Patent™ dental implant system includes all the components you need for the surgical and prosthetic procedures. As such, you don’t face any risk of having negative surprises in terms of additional component costs etc. Since you don’t need any additional components or special technical expertise, the cost of the entire workflow is predictable and uniform.

How Patent™ Improves Patient Experience

All dental procedures must cater to the patient’s overall experience. There’s no point in reducing the system’s costs and time if it adversely affects the patient’s experience. However, the Patent™ dental implant system improves the patient experience.

In terms of time, the Patent™ dental implant system saves the patient significant chairtime and cuts out one entire dental visit. In terms of experience, all the prosthetic work is done in the lab rather than in the patient’s mouth. No one likes a dentist — no matter how skilled — poking around inside their mouths any longer than absolutely necessary.

Calculate Your Savings with the Patent™ Dental Implant System

You might like to know how much time you can save with the Patent™ dental implant system compared to conventional implants. We’ve designed an innovative calculator tool that gives you an immediate estimation of the time you can save with a specific amount of implants. Simply enter the number of implants you want to calculate for, whether that’s 10, 500, 800, etc., and hit “calculate.” The system will estimate your overall savings in terms of time.

We would have loved to produce a similar tool to calculate your cost savings as well. However, as we established earlier in this article, the overall cost of conventional implants is incredibly unpredictable due to various factors, such as lab costs and advanced components, so we can’t give you an exact estimate of your cost savings. But your overall cost savings will also be significant.

This article was originally published in the Zircon Medical Magazine for leading dental professionals. The article was based on an interview conducted with Magnus Persson, the Director of Sales at Zircon Medical.