What Are Your Favorite Surgical Products When Practicing Implant Dentistry?
After graduating from dental school in India, Ravichandra Juluri, DDS, MS, practiced general dentistry in Nepal before coming to the United States and specializing in Periodontics and Oral Implantology at Temple University. Now practicing periodontics in Dunlap, IL, Dr. Juluri is a Fellow and Diplomate with the International Congress of Oral Implantologists, a Fellow in the International College of Dentists, and an active member of the ADA. Here, he shares his favorite surgical products when practicing implant dentistry.
For implantology, I like NSK’s Surgic Pro implant motor and Ti-Max X-SG20L implant handpiece with optics. I occasionally use the Ti-Max X-65L straight handpiece for osteoplasty and bone harvesting. These NSK products operate as a very dependable unit with less noise, ideal and consistent torque, and a bright and focused LED light in the handpiece. These high-quality products work great at high and low RPMs, and NSK offers great support for experienced and new users.
NobelActive implants from Nobel Biocare are my go-to implant in immediate implant cases. The 5.5 is ideal for posterior immediate implants for molar positions. BioHorizons’ tissue-friendly Laser-Lok implant and PEEK abutment are easy to use for immediate provisionals and can be used to make custom healing abutments, as well.
When performing surgical extractions I use Karl Schumacher’s Spade Proximators for luxating and elevating teeth or sectioning roots. The instruments have a good grip and are the ideal weight to ensure clinician comfort. When combined with the extraction kit, the Proximator helps with tissue elevation during perio surgery and grafting.
To assist in healing after extractions, I rely on a product that I evaluated for DPS. Medicom’s SafeGauze HemoStat is a topical hemostatic dressing that quickly turns to gel. It’s easy to pack in the socket, doesn’t stick to instruments, and rapidly stops bleeding.
During soft-tissue grafting for root coverage and tissue augmentation, I depend on Power Dental USA’s VT-Tunneling Kit, which is also useful for allografts and autografts. In 2017, I designed the VT-6 and VT-7 instruments for this kit, which Power Dental USA added to their product line.
