To cement or to screw – that is the question. Not anymore, startup RODO Medical has added a new option. Reversible retention using a shape memory metal dental retention system which uses one or more compression plates made from various shape memory materials, e.g., nickel-titanium alloys such as Nitinol. By applying energy via heat or electrical energy, the memory metal elements change shape. To remove a crown, energy is applied via a wand and the memory metal retentive element shape
In a deal worth $13.35, which has been approved by both companies’ boards, positions Zimmer, based in Warsaw since 1927, to become the second largest company by revenue in the $45 billion global market for artificial knees, hips and other orthopedic and bone-mending implants. The acquisition price, which includes the assumption of debt, consists of $10.35 billion in cash and $3 billion in Zimmer shares. The Zimmer-Biomet merger is the largest in the medical-devices industry since Johnson & Johnson purchased
Two recent recalls by the US Food and Drug Admininstration (FDA) of Zimmer’s Trabecular Metal Technology, one in dental implants and the other in shoulder implants raise concern. In the case of the recall of the Trabecular Metal dental implant: The Zimmer Dental voluntary device recall resulted from an investigation into the February 2012 complaint involving an apical tip of a 4.1mm D Trabecular Metal Implant which separated from the implant assembly during surgery on a patient with a dense
The FDA (US Food and Drug Agency) is proposing to reclassifying blade implants in a possible come-back for this type of implant. In a FDA press release they are proposing to change the classification from Class III devices to Class II devices because the benefits of blade-form implants “outweigh the risks enough to justify reclassifying the implants from class III, requiring premarket approval, to class II, requiring premarket notification with special controls,”. Class II medical devices are of “medium risk,”
An Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) research team that may have found a way to make bone implants less likely to fail using a high-tech adhesive that more securely bonds implants to bone by promoting cell growth between natural and artificial body parts. In a study published in the June 26 online edition of Science Translational Medicine, the MIT team and its collaborators from several other institutions reported that the implant adhesive — a multilayered coating of ceramic and nanolayers
Blue Sky Bio has released their BIO|Cut drill that features a unique drill topography to cut bone very efficiently without the need for sequential size drills. Only the final implant specific drill is needed to shape the osteotomy before implant placement. This design is particularly useful in guided surgery and allows very accurate guided osteotomies to be made without the need for key guides and sequential drill sizes which can introduce and compound inaccurate positioning. This system allows you to
Tantalum, element #73 on the periodic table has found its way into dental implants thanks to mega dental implant manufacturer, Zimmer. They have tranferred it from use in hip implants to dental implants. The trabecular metal material structure and stiffness similar to trabecular bone and is fabricated by coating a vitreous carbon skeleton with tantalum through a proprietary chemical vapor deposition coating process. The tantalum exhibits a crystallographic growth on the vitreous carbon surface of the interconnecting struts that form
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed a Palladium based glass that is an alloy of the noble metal palladium, a small fraction of silver, and a mixture of other metalloids—has shown itself in tests to have a combination of strength and toughness at a level that has not previously been seen in any other material. “Our study demonstrates for the first time that this class of materials, the metallic glasses, has the capacity to become the toughest
Sonitus Medica of San Mateo, California has received FDA clearance for SoundBite, a dental hearing aid for people with deafness in one ear. The system works much like a cochlear implant, except for the implantation. A behind the ear device wirelessly transmits audio from the affected ear to a little receiver attached to a tooth that resonates the teeth, that in turn stimulate both cochlea. The removable In-The-Mouth (ITM) device showed no long-term effects on dental or periodontal soft or
The use in spine surgery of bone-growth proteins like Medtronic Inc.’s product Infuse has led to widespread nationwide increases in hospital charges ranging from 11% to 41% above conventional surgical costs, researchers found. The researchers studied the results of a broad U.S. sample of 328,000 spine surgeries from 2002 through 2006. They report their findings this week in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors, from both Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston and from Yale, also
