Over the past year, the cost of installing dental implants has dropped significantly. Evgeny Zhilenko, implant surgeon of the Smile-at-Once dental network, warned in an interview with socialbites.ca that along with the price, the quality of service has dropped to a dangerous level.
Due to the economic downturn and problems in the supply of European implants, many clinics began to offer inexpensive systems – new or low-quality analogues. The specialist noted that generic drugs do indeed work successfully in some areas of medicine, but rarely work in implantation. Not studied, no long-term clinical data. Accordingly, no one can guarantee that the implants will take root stably and will last for decades.
“Although it is located under the gum and invisible from the outside, the implant is the basis of all treatments. The overlying prosthesis or crown is easy to replace. But if the implant is chosen incorrectly, if it is inserted with violations, it destroys the surrounding bone, and there are no conditions for re-insertion – the patient will only have removable dentures.
It is especially dangerous to use in procedures for which inexpensive implants are not suitable, according to the doctor. For example, recently the price of the all-on-4 protocol has generally been lowered: it assumes 4 implants are used to restore all teeth, and a fixed prosthesis of 10-12 crowns is fixed on it after 1-3 days. Originally developed by Nobel Biocare, in addition to the design of the implants, the entire treatment process was considered, from the operation plan in the computer model to the special instruments. These guidelines are not suitable for other implants. Accordingly, copies should be placed almost blindly. They can take root, but more often after 3-4 years they turn into bitterness and rejection.
“There are other pitfalls lurking behind low prices. Clinics are reducing diagnosis, rejecting digital planning and artificial intelligence, and excluding pre-operative testing for the sake of savings. This is a huge step back – the work is almost blind and the doctor can make mistakes in the diagnosis or in choosing the site for the implant. Modern technologies eliminate the risk of error by 99%,” the doctor warned.
Zhilenko emphasized that the original can be changed without the patient’s knowledge. It recommends checking the contract name and serial number of the implants, as well as requesting a barcode and label from the original packaging, which must be opened in front of the patient.
“It is useful to analyze what is not included in the implantation cost. If a patient’s health is not perfect, he will not be able to save money on the preparation, because now many risks have already been eliminated. But it is important to study the situation from all sides, to choose implants that will accelerate the natural healing and growth of new bone cells, ”said the doctor.
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