“The art & science of dental implant therapy” course concludes at Institute of advanced dental services

Dr Bilal A Shaikh — MSc (London), FICD, BDS and Dr Khurram Ataullah — MDS (Singapore), MRD RCS (Edinburgh), BDS (Hons) were the programme directors while Dr Ali Raza Syed coordinated the programme. Guest speakers included Prof. Mughees Baig and Prof. Abid Ashar. The course spanning over six sessions — 2-day session every month over a weekend — consisted of hands-on exercises on models, live clinical demonstrations, live patient surgeries by the participants, restoration of Implants by the participants and multi-system course in which participants were trained on all routinely available systems, including BioHorizons, DIO, Osstem, HiOssen, 3M, Osteoti etc. Session 1: Participants of the course during the first session of the course were apprised about Implant treatment planning and basic implant surgery. It was followed by a hands-on workshop on bone density models and training implants. Session 2 & 3: Revision of basic concepts of Implant Dentistry and live surgery carried out by course participants on patients were the main features of these two sessions. It was also followed by a hands-on workshop on bone density models and training implants. Session 4: During this session, participants were informed about advanced implant surgery whereas a workshop on sinus lift & ridge split on goat heads and training models was conducted. Session 5: Introduction to Implant Prosthodontics and loading of implants placed in session 2 & 3 were the main highlights of the session. Session 6: The main features of this session included loading of implants placed in session 4, cementation of Definitive Prosthesis, Periodontal-Restorative interactions and finally introduction to long-term Implant maintenance. Earlier, the programme directors - Dr Bilal A. Shaikh and Dr Khurram Ataullah - highlighted the objectives of the course, saying that at the end of the course the participants will have to make a decision whether or not implant therapy may be possible for the patient, be able to estimate the duration of the treatment and its estimated cost, be able to carry out placement of single/few implants, besides applying the basic principles of 'restoration driven' implant surgery. Moreover, they added, that participants were also expected to be able to restore implants with fixed restorations, be able to apply the principles of Perio-restorative inter-relationship to routine dental and implant practice, be familiarized with advanced implant surgical techniques, including open and closed sinus lift, alveolar ridge preservation, alveolar ridge augmentation and ridge-splitting and understand the importance of peri-implant tissue health in long term success of dental implant therapy and long-term maintenance of dental implants.—PR