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with the Middle East and the market al- ready? Have you had previous experiences here in the region? The Middle East people, in my opinion, are very similar to the Mediterranean people in the sense that they like to have painless treatment. In some western countries if you tell the patient “we are going to take a piece of your hip, we are going to transplant it to your jaw, we are going to build up your jaw” they’ll say “OK Doctor, when can you do it?”. People in the Middle East do not like to have a lot of pain in their life: they like to be treated in a simple fast and effi- cient way, and that is the way we are going to treat people with our technique. 2013 is around the corner, What are your plans for the coming year? Our plan is, as soon as we get more estab- lished here in Dubai, to establish another SameDay Dental Implants Clinic, hopeful- ly in Abu Dhabi. The concept is unique, it is the first and we believe there will be a good demand for it. Have you conducted any market research or does your European experience prove the concept works and the demand is high? We have a lot of experience in Europe with this; the Americans have also experienced a big trend in the USA to treat patients in this fashion. The only difference with the USA is that although they do treat patients with same day teeth they do not place the per- manent teeth straight away: they delay the permanent teeth for 2-3 months. So we will follow the trend of the USA in treating pa- tients in same day implant centers but we will go one step further and complete the treatment within one week. As far as the success rate for this type of treatment, it is very high, we’re talking about 97.5-98%. So while we do have some failures, it is in the region of 2-3%. We can quite happily manage those failures with- in the guarantee of implant treatment: we give our patients a ten year guarantee for the implant, in other words if the implant fails it will be replaced at no extra cost for ten years, and if the porcelain fails or breaks (these are the teeth over the implants) there is a five year guarantee. We guarantee the implant for ten years and the porcelain for five years. That makes the patient feel com- fortable in the sense that although he’s go- ing to pay a substantial amount of money for this treatment, he will have a guarantee. Indeed a great service to offer. Over the last few months we notice many Implant companies entering the Middle East mar- ket and competition is fierce. How do you differentiate yourself from the rest? We differentiate on two levels. The first level on which we differentiate is that our products are unique: Southern Implants is the only company in the world that offers the Co-Axis angled implant, an implant that has a built in angle. The other compa- nies offer straight implants only, and then you have to do all sorts of complicated prosthodontic procedures to correct the an- gle and bring it into the right place, where- as with Southern Implants- maybe you can focus on this x-ray behind me- this is an ex- cellent case to show how by using angled implants you can avoid the sinus while having a built in correction angle to pro- vide for correct prosthodontics. So we dif- ferentiate ourselves because we offer the angled implant, which we call the Co-Axis, and then we also differentiate by offering the immediate molar replacement implant which is the MAX Implant. This is a “molar specific” implant. We have one more unique product and that is called the Passive Abutment which al- lows the dentist, the restorative dentist or the prosthodontist, to get a perfect fit of his prosthetic bridge or his prosthetic restora- tion. So we differentiate ourselves on the level of innovation with products which are unique to our brand- to Southern Implants. The other level we differentiate is at the lev- el of affordable quality. The closest equiv- alent quality from other implant manufac- turers is significantly more expensive to the dental practitioner or to the dental spe- cialist. So we offer high quality, very high quality, at a reasonable price and then we offer the three innovations: the Co-Axis im- plant, the MAX Implant and the Passive Abutment. Very Futuristic! Speaking about the future, where do you see the Implant industry heading in let us say ten years from now? There are a number of ways it can go to. The one is that if people take better care of their teeth, which they probably will, there will be less number of implants to be placed which for the patients that is a good thing. On the other hand there is a lot of research and development in the stem cell market, and it might be possible in the next decade, or a bit longer, to replace a miss- ing tooth with stem cells which have been made to differentiate into tooth producing cells. So if you are missing your teeth, one might be able to take some stem cells, dif- ferentiate them and inject them in the place where your teeth are missing and grow teeth. We are quite a way from that, it will take a while to get there but if you ask me, long term, I think that is how we are going to go- in the direction of stem cells. So may- be we will not be placing implants, maybe we will be injecting stem cells. And what about CAD/CAM & Digital Dentistry? Yes, Certainly. Already we have high tech CAD/CAM equipment which can scan a model and instead of a dental technician making the prosthesis, it can be made by CAD/CAM, and we are even one step fur- ther now: we are almost ready to be able to take a scanner, scan the implant in the mouth (the prosthetic surface of the im- plant- the platform of the implant) so we do not take an impression. We scan the mouth and via CAD/CAM technology the teeth can be manufactured. What the technician will do is design the prosthesis and put the final touches: the color, the staining, the fi- nal character of the teeth so that not every- one’s teeth look the same, there has to be some characterization. Very interesting speaking with you Dr. Costa, is there anything else you would like to share with us? I would like to tell the public that they should look after their teeth, they should visit their dentist regularly, they should keep their teeth forever but should they lose one or more of their teeth; with today’s technology and today’s level of high tech dentistry in the 21st century it is very easy to replace a tooth with an implant with an excellent result. Thank you Dr. Costa we hope to see you again soon and wish you and your won- derful team all the best for 2013! The concept is unique, it is the first and we believe there will be a good demand for it Dr. Costa Nicolopoulos Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon SameDay Dental Implant Clinic costa@samedayme.com Contact Information Dear Colleagues, Dental implants have gained a large pop- ularity and acceptance in the dental world and became a very common treatment over the past decade. They have shown extremely high success rate and offered our patients a life chang- ing solutions. Implant specialists and General practitio- ners these days are more and more facing situations where they have to recommend dental implants and include them in their treatment plans, for the best interest of their patients, as well as dealing with com- plications related to these treatments. Surgical and prosthetic techniques has been improved and simplified to make the outcome of the treatment very predictable, however, the understanding of the biolog- ical and the clinical elements involved in Implantology remains the key of success of any implant treatment. These elements are constantly studied and developed world wide to understand and Improve Implant dentistry. Excellence is drive by passion and it should be the norm in our daily practice, which can only be achieved with continuous edu- cation and learning as well as sharing clin- ical experience. In our constant search for excellence in Im- plant dentistry we are pleased to introduce The Implant Tribune Section; in this sec- tion we will highlight the latest Implant news and studies from the Middle East and around the world. Furthermore, In the Implant Tribune Sec- tion, clinicians will have the chance to share their knowledge and experience by publishing their research, clinical studies or case reports. We hope that you will enjoy the new Im- plant Tribune Section and we are looking forward to your cooperation and feedback. Best Regards Dr Rabih Abi Nader Oral Surgeon & Implantologist DTMEA introduces 'Implant Tribune' section Dr Rabih Abi Nader B.D.S, D.E.S, D.E.S.S Oral Surgeon and Implantologist rader680@hotmail.com Contact Information << FILLING, page 1 17DENTAL IMPLANT TRIBUNEDENTAL TRIBUNE Middle East & Africa Edition | Jan-Feb 2013