Patient goals and your clinical aims – find a balance and achieve implant success
Featured Products Promotional FeaturesPosted by: Dental Design 24th January 2023
Empowered patients, armed with their own research about the treatment they want to invest in, are part of modern dentistry. These people are looking to fill in any gaps in the information they have found online, or after talking to friends and family. If they’re not a regular, they have shortlisted you as a potential place to go ahead with their chosen treatment, perhaps by looking on your website or being directed by word-of-mouth.
Patient-centred care requires creating an environment in which person and provider can communicate effectively. The latter will have taken time to learn and understand the factors that are shaping each patient’s behaviour and decisions, also any barriers to care.[i] A disconnect between what dental teams believe patients need and offer them, and what people actually want means fewer treatment plans accepted and completed.
So, someone coming to see you, telling you that they have looked into all the options and have decided that implant therapy would be best for them, does not want a bridge, or a partial or complete denture. They want a dental implant because they will have found out that it can give a natural-looking and functional result for a missing tooth. They’ll also know that, as long as they look after their oral hygiene, it can last a long time.
More patients are now interested in implants because of their aesthetic benefits, not just because they behave like the real thing. Successful implant therapy, a minimally-invasive and conservative treatment, can help to restore lost bone density, preserving and protecting the architecture of the jaw. This loss of ‘structure’ around the face can be ageing, and this is one reason why older patients are increasingly enquiring about dental implants. People of all ages want to go about their daily lives feeling confident about how they look. They want to love their smile, socialise and continue to eat what they want without worrying about a prosthesis. They want to take control of their health and wellbeing, and are willing to play an active role in keeping their treatment stable.
Most adults in good general and oral health can be suitable candidates for implant therapy, and this is one reason why an increasing number of practices are offering this treatment. An implant dentist will be a master communicator as well as a skilled and creative problem solver; this is crucial when patients who have done their homework have expectations that need to be managed. If they have neglected their oral health for years and need to improve it be before a dental implant can be placed, you want to have a team in place to facilitate that. It’s about working in partnership to ensure success and longevity, as part of an all-round quality experience.
Once their trust in your knowledge starts to build, it will be easier to move forward with a treatment plan that satisfies their aesthetic and/or functional goals and helps you achieve your clinical ones. Once there is a good relationship, you can talk about the implant team you have built, to work alongside you. Also, how every part of their journey will be managed, tailored to their specific case and supported all the way through. This will include aftercare, so that their implant is beautifully maintained allowing them to reap the benefits of their investment over and over again.
Use gold-standard products alongside techniques that facilitate exceptional results. Dental implant treatment protocols, including the materials to deliver them, have been refined over the years and continually optimised for better predictability and reliability as well as stability and aesthetics. Now, they enable dentists to restore smiles efficiently as well as safely – immediate implant treatments are a concept that empowered patients will be aware of, ideal for those who want a fantastic result in fewer appointments.
When choosing an implant system with immediacy in mind, the design, surface and available components of the implant all need to be considered, with biomaterials often utilised. The right biomaterials can help preserve the soft tissue, and encourage slower remodelling and fast healing – so every part of the process is enhanced. The innovative TLXÒ Implant system from StraumannÒ mimics the natural anatomy, respecting the hard and soft tissue for optimal aesthetics. Offering fully tapered tissue-level implants, the system combines the benefits of a tissue level connection with the stability needed for immediacy. The TLX® Implant system also reduces the risk of nesting bacteria, optimises cleansability and, with its simple, efficient design, it will help you to deliver reliably exceptional outcomes.
Patients in the driving seat, seeking out the treatment they want, are encouraging practices and practitioners to raise their game. To support acceptance and success, care should be focused on achieving patients’ aims and your clinical goals, with a team-centred approach utilising gold-standard materials.
For more information, please visit http://www.straumann-uk.co/tlx
[i] Lee, H., Chalmers, N.I., Brow, A. et al. Person-centered care model in dentistry. BMC Oral Health 18, 198 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12903-018-0661-9
