You're never fully dressed without a smile! Luckily, three million Americans and 500,000 new patients each year can smile with confidence thanks to dentists and a little thing called implants.

Accidents, gum disease, failed root canals, and tooth decay contribute to the growing number of dental implant patients, and with a success rate of over 95%, it's no wonder implants are dentists' go-to treatment option for missing teeth. Demand for implants is on the rise and as a result, general practice dentists will have to learn and adapt this treatment modality.

While implants' success rate is quite high, there are occlusal factors that can impact an implant's longevity. Bite force and timing can play a crucial role in both preventing and causing tooth damage.

Dr. Scott Keith, DDS practices in the San Francisco suburb of Walnut Creek, California, specializing in Prosthodontics and comprehensive dental implant treatment.  He also is engaged in dental implant clinical research and provides continuing education courses on the topic of dental implants to practitioners around the country.  Before adopting occlusal analysis technology, his office, like many, was troubled by the occasional nuisance of chipping or fracture of dental restorative materials like acrylic or porcelain crowns and bridges. He notes that, obviously, he didn't want unhappy patients walking in during a busy day with a popped-off denture tooth or fractured restoration.

Minimizing Occlusion's Impact on Implants

Ultimately, the destructive habits that break teeth and porcelain, contribute to pain, sensitivity, and TMJ issues, relate directly back to occlusion. In reality, occlusal disease in its many forms continues to ravage patients' teeth, making it the number one reason why restorations fracture and fail.

To minimize this kind of damage, clinicians must be able to see when each tooth comes into contact, how much force is applied across the dentition, and understand how teeth fit together as they occlude. This is quantifiable, measurable data that many dentists aren't able to collect with articulating paper alone.

To accurately and objectively measure patients’ occlusion, clinicians must outfit their operatories with T-Scan™. T-Scan is dentistry's only clinically recognized and research validated digital occlusion analysis system. This tool, with its state-of-the-art software, helps clinicians identify premature contacts, high forces and interrelationships of occlusal surfaces.

Using T-Scan for implant applications can help to determine a proper implant loading scheme, ensure that the implant isn't taking the brunt of the forces, and show when - during the bite - the implant starts to load, and with how much force.

Dr. Keith touts T-Scan's value in assisting him with implant cases.

"Just because we remove teeth doesn’t change the patient's bite force capability, doesn't change his muscles, doesn't change his habits. We have to try and equilibrate and distribute the forces such that they are evenly contacting on any material to minimize damage. We'll always use T-Scan to show us how our distribution is and if we're getting any premature contacts."

When it comes to managing occlusal issues in implant patients, T-Scan is dentistry's only tool that can provide a comprehensive view. It reveals bite force dynamics using sensor technology to determine the timing and relative forces between occluding surfaces in the mouth, including implants.

"The relative occlusal force and real-time occlusal contact timing data provided by T-Scan technology can be used to manage the insertion occlusal force design of implant prostheses, as their long-term survivability is tied directly to their installed occlusal function," says Dr. Jinhwan Kim, contributor to the Handbook of Research on Computerized Occlusal Analysis Technology Applications in Dental Medicine. "…The clinician eliminates the subjectivity involved in using articulating paper alone, ensuring the occlusal design of newly installed implant prostheses are optimal, and improve prosthesis longevity."

For a deeper look at the state of implant dentistry today and to explore real cases from dentists who utilize technology to manage implant occlusion, check out our free eBook, "Implant Occlusion in the Digital Age of Dentistry."