The million or so artificial hips and knees implanted each year in the United States are normally not guaranteed. Instead, the costs of replacing implants that fail early because of design or mechanical problems — devices that sell for as much as $15,000 each — are largely paid by Medicare, insurance companies and patients. Implants can fail for many reasons, but if only a small percentage of them fail prematurely because they are substandard, the costs to taxpayers, policyholders and
A Las Vegas dentist has filed a FDA Med Watch report regarding the integrity and therefore sterility of Nobel Biocare Replace Implants. To quote from the report: “I have experienced substantial and unexplainable failures with Nobel Biocare`s (“Nobel”) Replace(TM) Implants. Of 88 consecutively placed implants,34 required removal due to pain or infection for a failure rate of 38.6% (Attachment #1). I doubt these failures are caused entirely by my case selection or surgical skill because I also recorded the clinical
Dr. Paul Sharpe`s company Odontis Ltd. has been awarded US Patent #7588936 for the regeneration of teeth primordia using bone marrow cells. Bone marrow cells may be employed to generate teeth without the need for purification and expansion of a population of cells. The group of British scientists claim that they have figured out a way to make dentures obsolete, with the power of stem cells. Simply put, stem cells taken from a patient will be used to grow a
Dental implant makers lost their shine as a recession-proof investment during the global crisis, which turned fixing smiles into a luxury for consumers who struggled to pay for non-essential work on their mouths. “In spite of their rather functional nature, implants are similar to luxury goods in the sense that they are expensive, discretionary items,” Jefferies analyst Stephan Gasteyger said. The dental implant market earned a reputation for being recession-proof by maintaining double-digit growth rates in prior downturns, but the
With economic pressures affecting millions of Americans, dentists may have noticed a drop in patients opting for a brighter smile, but they are seeing another phenomenon: a rise in the number of teeth grinders. “I’m seeing a lot more people that are anxious, stressed out and very concerned about their financial futures and they’re taking it out on their teeth,” said Dr. Steven Butensky, a dentist with a specialty in prosthodontics (aesthetic, implant and reconstructive dentistry) in Manhattan. One of
Numerous dental implant company`s have sprung up over the last 3 years that aim to deliver either very similar designs or almost direct copies of established company`s design. These clone implants are often substantially less expense i.e. 1/4 the cost of full service dental implant company`s implants. In addition to mimicking the implant, they have also expanded into compatible prosthetic parts and coverscrews. Especially prominent clone makers Blue Sky Bio (Clone: Straumann, Nobel Biocare and Zimmer) and Dr. Niznick`s Implant
Anna Tampieri at the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics, Faenza, and colleagues have turned wood into bone mimics that could be used to repair damaged limbs. The Italian scientists were inspired by nature`s highly organised hierarchial structures to make porous hydroxyapatite scaffolds with structures similar to that of real bone. The scaffolds `pave the way for realising prosthetic devices which could get closer to the extraordinary performance of human tissues`, they claim. The team heated the wood to
The New York Times health section recently published an informative article on the trend away from using bridges to replace missing teeth and toward replacement with dental implants. The comments section of this article is also particularly lively and well-worth reading.
The Powertome 100S from Westport Medical is a powered periotome used in the extraction of teeth. It features a powered periotome blade that is precisely guided in the periodontal ligament by a microprocessor controlled, solenoid actuator. It features a footswitch activated handle similar to other dental hand pieces and the operation, actuation and sterilization are therefore intuitive.
A former US Army orthropedic surgeon, Dr. Timothy Kuklo, previously accused of falsifying a study on a bone growth product used on severely injured Iraq war veterans has resigned his teaching position at Washington University in St. Louis. He was placed on leave earlier this year while the university investigated charges against him. Medtronic, a maker of the bone growth product Infuse, also suspended his consulting contract. The company paid him nearly $800,000 the last few years. An investigation last
