implants - international magazine of oral implantology

I research _Introduction Today,about65%ofItaliandentistsarepractis- ing implantology. In Italy alone, over a million im- plants are placed every year. A survey commis- sionedbytheItalianSocietyofOsseointegratedIm- plantology on implant perception among the Ital- ian population found that 68% of the respondents would request an implant should the need for an artificialtootharise.OneItalianoutofthreehasun- dergone oral implant surgery. It follows that os- seointegratedimplantswillbeofferedbyagrowing number of professionals and be placed in an ever- larger population in the future.1 It should also be noted that the economic crisis has severely affected even the dental field, and the repercussions of this phenomenon have been re- ported by newspapers, professional associations and the Ministry of Health in Italy. The Osser- vasalutereport,anoverviewofhealthinItaly(com- piled by the National Observatory on Health Status in the Italian Regions, based at the Università Cat- tolica del Sacro Cuore’s campus in Rome), reported in 2010 that Italians are being forced to save and that both the food and dental industries will suffer as a result.2 Past president of the Italian National Associa- tionofDentists(ANDI)DrRobertoCallionianalysed theconsequencesoftheeconomiccrisisandfuture prospects at a conference held under the auspices of the Ministry of Health on 29 March 2011. He stated that, according to a survey by ANDI in 2010, 30% of Italian dentists have less work because of the crisis.3 However, he also observed an increase in offer- ings owing to the extension of retirement age and the number of graduates, and a decline in demand related to the decrease in purchasing power, a de- clineinbirthrateandadecreaseintheDMFTindex.3 In addition, dentists have to compete against low- costdentaloffersanddentaltourismtosomeloca- tionsinEasternEurope(aswasthecaseinthe1990s with regard to the Netherlands). The increase in of- ferings and the reduction in demand have resulted in the average practitioner having higher costs and lowerrevenues,alsoowingtotheinstabilityofsup- ply and demand. Oral implantology is affected, as are other disciplines of dentistry, by the current so- cio-economic situation. Yet, the sense is that of a greater demand by the public and a need for the dentist to offer treatment at a lower cost. In Italy, there are more than 300 different im- plant systems (probably not an accurate estimate, considering the difficulty in recording copies of copies). These systems usually have the certifica- tion necessary for the market, but only a small pro- Cost effectiveness in implant dentistry Author_Prof Dr Mauro Labanca, Italy 12 I implants4_2012 [PICTURE: ©PESHKOVA]