Rectangular Block Dental Implants: A Sizeable Innovation From Down Under

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Rectangular Block Dental Implants: A Sizeable Innovation From Down Under

  1. Home
  2. Dental Articles
  3. Dental Implants Articles
  4. Rectangular Block Dental Implants: A Sizeable Innovation From Down Under
Rectangular Block Dental Implants A Sizeable Innovation From Down Under In New Gisborne Dental House At New Gisborne
Aussies used to know a lot about blocks. Quarter-acre most particularly. That was the norm, after the Second World War. During the ’50s work was plentiful and dreams were largely uncomplicated and big enough to achieve. All driven by the concatenating sense of optimism that prevails when, whether by fluke or force war wearily wears itself out.

A quarter-acre block meant there was room to build a garage and plenty of space for the Hills Hoist, a swing set, a dog, a cat, and a chook house for six. A vege patch, front and back garden and a Driclad above ground pool completed the picture, before saving up for a decade or more for an in-ground one, and extensions to the house. Cape Cod conversions were popular in the remodelling stakes for those many home owners of the ’70s.

It was a time that had the dental profession first experience the population having easy access to fluoride toothpaste, and metal reinforced glass ionomer cement for restorations was making its mark. (Or not – that was the whole idea of it, really.)

In the ’60s just prior to decimalisation a double-brick, 2-bedroom house with a lounge room, small sunroom, separate dining area, bathroom (with bath and overhead shower) and a laundry with an outside door on that ubiquitous quarter-acre block was £27,000 taken over a 30-year mortgage. The average wage was about £18 a week. A loaf of white bread, crusty, uncut with tissue paper wrapped around its middle for grimy hand handling was by 1966 equivalent to 15c; about $2.40 by today’s standard.

It was a home to be lived in, not a commodity to be stripped, slicked and flipped.

300,000 similar houses (albeit sometimes 3-bedroom) were built in Australia in the ten years after the world had stopped trying to blow itself up for the second time.

As is the postwar norm, there was a shortage of building materials and a lack of tradies to do the job. Home ownership was (quite rightly) considered an absolute birthright. For Aussies and the two million immigrants that helped the country “populate or perish” the can-do attitude of days of yore meant that many built their own.

For about three years salary, one thousand square metres of grounding ground could be bought, work could begin and families could become communities.

It certainly represented more than shelter and security for the nation’s longest serving, and 12th PM, ‘Pig Iron Bob’ (Robert Menzies 1894-1978). This Knight of the Thistle (bet you didn’t know that) wasn’t fond of the moniker; just as those 1938 strikers were not fond of his willingness to supply Japanese steel mills with pig iron to produce military material for its undeclared war on China. He much preferred ‘Ming’ – the requisite Aussie shortening of Menzies’ preferred Scottish pronunciation of his name being “Ming-iss”. He attempted to have that as the common and official articulation, but no-one was going to have a bar of it and he was lucky to get ‘Ming’.

With a nod to Flash Gordon it was actually ‘Ming the Merciless’ because one of Australia’s greatest natural resources is irreverence.

What PM Ming loved most about all this home ownership was that in his mind, it established a defence against Communism; given that when you’re busy with owning and improving your own castle, you don’t have the time or inclination to become a revolutionary. It made him feel as content as a pig in mud envisioning Australians all over the country making their bed (well) lying in it (happily) and ergo ensuring there were no “reds” under it.

Ah yes. They were simpler times.

And they might have been weird thoughts, but at least it was a time that had the time to think them.

Rectangular Block Dental Implants A Sizeable Innovation From Down Under At New Gisborne Dental House In New Gisborne
Sixty years on, it’s difficult to know exactly what thought motivated University of Melbourne’s Associate Professor of Prosthodontics, Roy Judge, to garner two more highly knowledgeable colleagues for some re-evaluation and research into standard dental implants.

Could’ve been the many challenges for dentists and specialists when a patient presents with missing teeth and also suffers significant bone loss. The conventional method of treatment is complex, expensive and lengthy. Vertical bone grafting is often considered challenging and unpredictable, and in order to create a suitable anchor point for a dental implant, it’s necessary. Both the healing process and final result are so easily compromised along the way, it’s not unusual for patient and practitioner to be disappointed with the outcome.

The alternative – distraction osteogenesis – is the process of making a shorter bone longer. An incision is made in the jawbone and a device slowly pulls the pieces apart. Sometimes it’s inserted under the skin, though more often than not it’s attached to an external head-frame. Although it’s not painful, it’s a therapy that not only usually proves prohibitive, but few clinics even offer this orthopaedic option.

These are the challenges that had specialist prosthodontist Dr Roy Judge and his and his fellow inventors, dental surgeon Dr Tim Gazelakis and physicist Joseph Palamara, go back to the starting block and develop the rectangular block implant (RBI).

For some patients there’s a loss of healthy bone due to trauma, disease, or long-ago dental extractions. Where there is a lack of bone density there’s also a lack of blood supply; and it makes healing outcomes less predictable and less successful. There’s increased micro-movement across the bone, and the implant site becomes fibrous rather than achieving the proper osteointegration as intended.

Traditional dental implants drill straight down into the jaw; the RBI has a long horizontal base that requires much less height to achieve optimal stability. It makes the best use of whatever bone density the patient has, and any risk to nerves and veins in the jaw is impressively reduced. Patients also experience much improved chewing ability with this maximum force distribution.

It’s particularly effective for patients who’ve been missing back teeth for an extended period of time, and those with resorbed alveolar ridges following long-ago tooth extraction.

It’s the first of its type, and it’s designed and manufactured in Australia.

At this point, after numerous ethics clearances and extremely successful animal studies, the University of Melbourne’s development team have had positive bond and soft tissue responses with the implants placed into two patients.

Recently, proof-of-concept human clinical trials began – the first step in making the RBI commercially available, with manufacturing undertaken by Signature Orthopaedics.

RBI is the answer to a lot of issues that have precluded many patients from even having the option of successful dental implants since the 1980s. Without doubt, it’s a rectangular block worth getting excited about. You can bet the house on it.

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The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional personal diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your dentist or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a dental or medical condition. Never disregard professional advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read or seen on the Site.

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