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ORAL SURGERY & PERIODONTICS BLOG

The Latest on Dental Health, Dental Implants, Periodontics, Oral Surgery and More

How to Choose the Best Oral Surgeon for Implant Treatment

A critical component to getting the great smile you want is selecting the right oral surgeon to do the job for you. Partly because the technology has advanced so rapidly and so significantly, there is a wide range of knowledge, experience, and skill among oral surgeons who are performing dental implant treatments.
 

 

find a surgeon who uses advanced dental technology

For all oral surgeons, there's a learning curve and a level of comfort they have to achieve before they can effectively use this new technology. It requires time and extra expense for a surgeon and his staff to become well-trained and experienced in using the new techniques, but it’s definitely worthwhile because the benefits to patients are so significant.

Digital implant dentistry is a newer, more advanced way for oral surgeons to provide patients with the very best in dental implant and restoration therapy. However, there are still many oral surgeons doing dental implants who are not using the latest digital technologies. In fact, I’d say at this point in time, the majority of oral surgeons do not yet have sufficient knowledge of, or experience in using, the latest technology. 
 
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find a surgeon who is experienced with that technology 

For most oral surgeons doing implants, there’s an evolution or process that they have to progress through as far as getting trained in and comfortable with using digital dentistry techniques. With a lot of oral surgeons, there may initially be some denial about the importance of moving to the new digital technology. At first, they may resist spending the necessary time and money required to become adequately trained in using the technology, perhaps telling themselves it’s not really necessary or it’s just too expensive or time-consuming for them to learn the new procedures.

What usually ends up moving most oral surgeons past that initial denial stage is a special case that comes up with a specific patient where the oral surgeon can clearly see that the digital technology offers a real advantage. For example, they might have a patient come in with a case where getting the best placement for an implant would be very difficult using traditional procedures, but very easy using the digital imagery that you get with the new technology.

After the first case that leads them to employ the new technology, oral surgeons pretty quickly see the benefits of digital dentistry, both for their patients and for their practice. While they might initially only use digital implant techniques for a few special cases, most of the time they will eventually move to adopting digital dentistry as standard practice for all of their implant cases, just because they recognize the fact that it yields the best possible results for their patients, even patients with fairly simple cases.

how our use of technology at north shore smile surgery sets us apart

At North Shore Smile Surgery, we have personally gone through these phases, and that’s the point that we’ve reached in our practice - the point of adopting digital implant dentistry as the best possible treatment procedure for all of our patients. We want to do everything possible to help our patients get the absolute best result in every case, and digital dentistry is the way to do that and to achieve that goal.

We believe it’s important for patients to seek care from an oral surgeon who has a similar philosophy that has led them to embrace the new technology. There will always be challenges and risks, but using digital implant dentistry nearly always enables the oral surgeon to obtain a better and faster end result for their patients.

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choosing THE BEST CARE

It really behooves the patient to seek out an oral surgeon who's both well-trained in digital implant dentistry techniques and who has also gained substantial experience in using those techniques. The technological tools are important, but skill, gained through experience, is equally important.

Ideally, you want an oral surgery practice that is not only using the best tools, but that also has become very skillful in using those tools. Digital implant dentistry is a professional craft, and like any other professional craft, it takes time for someone to develop their skills and become exceptionally proficient in performing this kind of treatment.

Oral surgeons who are already using the latest digital technology are better positioned to embrace and adopt newer technology as advances continue to be made because they already know the basics of digital dentistry.

As more changes and improvements with technology arise, those oral surgeons will be able to more quickly and easily adopt new procedures that enable them to provide the best possible experience and results for their patients.


Learn more about technology at North Shore Smile Surgery or schedule an appointment if you're ready to take advantage of the benefits that our advanced dental technology offers!

This blog post is based on an excerpt from Dr. Scott Frank's chapter in the book, "A Reason to Smile: Fixing Broken Confidence with Cosmetic Dentistry." 

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