In the last two decades if one thing that has revolutionized dentistry and the treatment planning it has been the evolution of dental implants with a very high degree of predictability and prognosis. Ever since the breakthrough turning point discovery of titanium and its Osseo-Integration property by prof. Branemark ,if their is one field of medicine that has benefited the most that has been restorative dentistry.

Even as a prosthodontist we need to accept that there are certain anatomic conditions, individual preferences and some systemic conditions for the fully and partially edentulous [distal extensions] where conventional removable prosthesis do not give satisfactory results to patients and also to dentist. These patients have also been coined as dental cripples by us.

Today where conservation is the rule and more and more venners and partial crowns are being advocated against conventional crowns ,conventional fixed partial denture treatment needed more rationalisation with a lot more patients preferring artificial roots for replacement of their teeth to bridges which undermine their healthy natural adjacent teeth.

Implant surgery and implant prosthodontics have seen dramatic advances in the form of atraumatic extractions for socket preservation either for immediate or delayed implant placement to CAD CAM guided surgery for immediate replacement/function. sinus augmentation procedures, block grafts from intra oral and extraoral sites, nerve repositioning have become the order of the day today. Now dentistry has been gaining popularity with advances in implant surfaces to take up immediate load and the advent of single piece implants.

Although their has been such a drastic change in dentistry with implants unfortunately their has been inadequate education in this field both in under graduation and post graduation level. Majority of General dentist who have graduated just a couple of years ago and who have graduated probably a decade ago are still ignorant about complete science and rehabilitation using implants. This has led to a huge gap to be filled between the patient demands for a better prosthesis and a lot of dentists unable to meet up to their needs. Our effort to bridge this long gap has been the implantation of the school of dental implants , an advanced surgical and prosthetic training programme.

-Prof. Dr. Vikas Gowd
M.D.S., FICO oral and maxillofacial prosthodontist and implantologist