BRIDGEBASE®- THE NEW WAY FORWARD FOR FULL ARCH IMPLANT RESTORATIONS Leave a comment
When it comes to patient-specific single tooth restorations, Atlantis ® CustomBase from Dentsply Sirona takes some beating. It’s a system that’s given labs the freedom to choose screw retained abutments and crowns in a range of biocompatible materials including titanium, gold-shaded titanium and different shades of zirconia while eliminating the time needed for waxing, casting, grinding and hand finishing.
While CustomBase gives us a clinically superior, very robust and very efficient workflow for single tooth restorations, I couldn’t help but think how great it would be if we could do the same for implant bridges and full arch restorations.
Dentsply Sirona have done just that with the launch of Atlantis BridgeBase!
Just what we’ve been waiting for
I believe BridgeBase is exactly what technicians have been looking for, doing away with all the elements that makes constructing a bridge so tricky while opening the door to a new verified digital workflow. BridgeBase allows full-arch cases to be as streamlined as single-unit cases, reducing chair time and cost while transforming the relationship between the practice and the lab.
We no longer have to work with an analogue system of impressions, wax-ups, hand layering and being restricted to using a milled chrome base with layered ceramic or composite over the top. We now have a choice of new materials, including zirconia and PMMA, fused on to a titanium metal framework with all the biological and functional advantages to deliver far better restorative solutions than we’ve ever seen before.
Supreme accuracy
The BridgeBase digital workflow centers around the supreme accuracy and connectivity of the Primescan® intraoral scanner. The digital impressions from the clinician are transferred directly to the lab so we can immediately start to work on the diagnostics and make joint clinical decisions on the final outcome based on the same visual references. This eliminates the hand-written prescriptions of the past and any miscommunication before we even get to start on making the structures.
The same digital files are then transferred to Atlantis to verify the accuracy and simultaneously start to build the titanium metal framework. We choose to partner with Atlantis because they are simply the best; the milling is of such a high quality you can guarantee aesthetic predictability and a perfect fit every time.
Enhanced workflow
Previous methods of making the final bridge tended to be more technique sensitive and take up a lot of time using manual processes. Now we have a permanent digital record of the patient’s mouth from beginning to end as we’ve never had before, including the vital occlusional relationship the patient is happy with. This means we can produce a PMMA try-in based on the initial scans for the patient to wear to check for feel and function. And once approved, we have exactly the same files plus any modifications ready to produce the final zirconia or PMMA structure.
BridgeBase creates a far more efficient workflow from a lab perspective. It gets rid of the mundane work processes that were never a good use of a highly skilled technician’s time.It delivers much faster outcomes for patients struggling with the loss of teeth and we can create solutions in a fraction of the time it would have taken us in the past.
In terms of the relationship between the lab and the surgery, BridgeBase has been a game-changer. Better still, from the patient’s perspective their final restoration can be delivered in just three practice appointments – the impression taking, the try-in and the final placement.
At Nexus we are very fortunate to work with leading clinicians and oral surgeons as part of a team delivering what is technically a medical device to their patients, and with that comes responsibility. We have to do what’s best ethically for our patients, as the solutions we strive to deliver will ultimately change their life and this change must always be for the better. Atlantis BridgeBase and the verified digital workflow can help us to do just that.
To discover more about BridgeBase, visit denstplysirona.com/atlantis
You can visit the online Dentsply Sirona Academy for a wide range of education resources, video tutorials, courses and CPD webinars at dentsplysirona.com/ukeducation.
Facebook: @dentsplysirona.uk
Twitter: @DENTSPLY_UK
Instagram: @dentsplysirona.uk
