On Point with X-Nav Technologies: Recent Episodes
X-Nav Technologies
Welcome to On Point - A podcast by X-Nav Technologies where expert guests discuss real ways that dental surgeons are using X-Guide Navigation today.
On this episode of On Point, a podcast from X-Nav, Host Tyler Kern talked with Dr.Mounir Iskandar, a certified restorative and cosmetic dentistry specialist and a Surgical Prosthodontist at Radiance Dentistry. The duo spoke about his career and the technologies he employs in dentistry.
When Iskandar graduated from medical school in 1998, dental implants were just a small chapter in the oral surgery book. While there was a lack of information, it still caught his attention. He went into oral surgery training, cutting his teeth (or someone else’s) at a practice in Egypt. When he arrived, he studied to get a specialty in Surgical Prosthodontics and get a Masters of Science in Dentistry from the Indiana University School of Dentistry.
As part of his career, he also teaches other oral surgeons about implants. He teaches his students to employ the same philosophy as himself, which is always try to plan and place the implant in a certain way that it can be restored correctly. Also, soft-tissue management around the implant is very crucial and important for the best result. Bone and soft-tissue and the implant all have to work together. Respect the soft-tissue around the implant.
“After training how to put in implants, or learning other protocols, one of the most important things to learn is your own implant system … the sequence of drills and the restorative part,” Iskandar said.
Dr. Iskandar uses X-Guide dynamic surgical navigation now, which allows him to know (and see in real-time) exactly where to put an implant. It’s also important to understand how an implant will be restored. Original placement is crucial, but it also is essential to consider that the implant needs to be restored.
“I was always dreaming of how nice it would be to see where the drill was going while I was drilling. As soon as I found X-Nav, I was in!”
Oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Aaron Quitmeyer performs dental implant surgery at his Shenandoah Oral & Facial Surgery Dental Implant Center in Harrisonburg, VA. In Dr. Quitmeyer’s modern, technology-driven practice, he uses X-Guide navigation to perfect the smiles he places on his patient’s faces.
Dr. Quitmeyer spoke to On Point about his practice and why digital navigation technology makes a difference in the implant surgeries he performs.
“I look at digital technologies as an instrument which I can use to provide the best level of care that I can do,” Dr. Quitmeyer said. “I also think that digital technologies allow us to improve the patient experience.” Dr. Quitmeyer believes that, as technology advances, so must his practice.
“I originally invested in the equipment to place single unit implants or maybe a couple implants in a quadrant, and then I found I was using them much more consistently for things like immediate implants and crystal sinus lifts. The use for full-arch reconstruction and immediate hybrid placement and full arches is very exciting.”
For patients needing everything from a single implant to total or partial edentulism, digital technology is streamlining and improving the workflow for dental implants. What’s making a big difference? The X-Guide and Dynamic Navigation.
Dr. Robert Pauley Jr., DMD, practices dentistry in Union City, Georgia, where he and his staff have been bringing smiles to patients since 1988. Dr. Pauley is a firm believer in the X-Guide by X-Nav Technologies, and he shared his insights with On Point in the hope he could help other dentists discover the benefits of dynamic navigation.
When implant surgery began to pique Dr. Pauley’s interest, he immediately recognized the need for digital technologies to help him plant implants from the perspective of the patient’s bone structure.
“This was still placing implants by freehand,” Dr. Pauley said. “It was probably about five years ago, a couple of months after X-Nav was introduced. I was attending a Meisinger's High Altitude Comprehensive Implant Symposium, and I saw the X-Nav sponsored table.”
Dr. Pauley couldn’t believe the demonstration he witnessed; on-screen navigation helped the dental implant placement procedure implant in the exact planned location. He knew, on the spot, he needed to have X-Nav technology in his practice.
Since obtaining X-Nav, it is the only method Dr. Pauley uses for placing implants. And confidence in placing the implants doesn’t just fall on the dentist's side. As Dr. Pauley said, “[Patients’] confidence in me becomes much more, because they see what’s involved in the treatment plan.”
X-Nav imports all of the pre-work data done on a patient’s mouth to map out exactly where to place the implant for a perfect fit. And the X-Guide isn’t only for single implants; multiple implants and procedures placing implants near a patient’s sinus floor are routine for the X-Guide navigation system.