Source for metal balls -Reply

[Curtis Lundeen]

Sharon,

We have just begun to use our OP-100 for implant tomos and it's working out just
great.  So far we have only used it for one or two implant sites in mandibular
arches with one or two teeth missing, as opposed to multiple sites in a totally
edentulous arch.

We don't use the metal ball in the impression material because we want the
referring doctor to be responsible for determining the exact implant site.  We
have the referring doctor make a small stent with clear cold cure ortho acrylic
that fits in the edentulous area of interest and touches the soft tissue of the
edentulous ridge area.  Then the doctor places a TMS pin in each planned implant
site through the acrylic and touching the soft tissue on the stone model
beneath. The pins should be at the expected angle of the planned implants. The
stent with the TMS pin(s) is delivered to us on a stone model.  If there are two
pins close together, we bend the upper part that is sticking out of the acrylic
in different directions so that they can be identified in the resulting tomo
images.  The patient wears the stent when biting into the impression material on
the bite plate.  It may stick in the material or you may have to glue it to the
material after removing the impression from the mouth.  Then when you're
aligning the laser lights, it helps that you can still see the pin in the clear
acrylic.  In the tomo images one of the three cuts will hopefully show the pin
the sharpest and you know that that cut is right where the doctor planned the
implant placement.  Also the angle of the pin in the longitudinal and
cross-sectional views may help the doctor to decide on a different angle during
surgery.

We have found that we learn a little bit more each time we use the OP-100, but
the machine already knows everything it needs to know!

Curt
lundeenc at ohsu.edu