Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2017-04-05, 10:39:28 | version 1.38.0
I C.E. article_ implant innovation Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 it occurred to me that implants should be tapered as well. The bone is not square; it’s a series of triangles that is best accommodated by a tapered shape. A flat top with an internal connection offered an esthetic advantage because the implant could be placed at or slightly below the crest of the bone, without an external component causing metal to show through the crown. This led to the design of the tri-lobe internal connection of the Replace Select, which was first introduced by Steri-Oss and became the most popular design in the Nobel Biocare implant portfolio after the company acquired the brand in 1998. The thread pattern of the Replace Select was simi- lar to that of the parallel-walled Steri-Oss implant, but I wanted to have a variant of aggressiveness in the pitch of the threads as it came up to the apex. I knew that another company was coming out with four different implants for the different qualities of bone, and I wanted to beat them to the punch. So I said, “Let’s put four different thread patterns in one implant,” which really helped with the degree of taper and cutting into denser bone. The tapered shape of the Replace Select was ideal for two-stage treatment, but the thread design wasn’t aggressive enough to provide the stability I needed for single-stage surgery. This left me wanting a thread design that was more sharp-edged — but not too aggressive — which was one of the formative ideas behind the Hahn Tapered Implant. • Hahn Tapered Implant (Fig. 6): Like several of the implants I’ve placed for this patient, the two Hahn Tapered Implants shown in the panoramic radiograph (Fig. 2) were placed immediately follow- ing extractions. The patient is active socially and has always wanted an immediate temporary after having 06 I implants 1_2017