About This Page
This page is a media vault for images, slides, white papers and PDF files. This page will be updated fairly regularly. You are welcome to download any of these files and use them for personal or educational purposes. Below are brief descriptions and definitions about some of the media files available. Of course I welcome any questions and comments you might have. Please forward these to my e-mail address at rgougaloff@gmail.com or post them on Robert Gougaloff's Blog.
Sinus Augmentation
A sinus augmentation is a bone grafting procedure. It is mostly done for the sole purpose to create enough bone for Dental Implants to be placed simultaneously or at a later time. Sinus Augmentations have been performed since the 1980s with great success. Hilt Tatum was the first to present sinus augmentations in 1977, however Boyne and James were the first ones to publish the procedure in 1980. The Sinus Augmentation (often also called the Sinus Lift Procedure) is a surgical procedure where the inner sinus membrane (Schneiderian Membrane) is "lifted" off the bottom floor of the maxillary sinus and a bone graft is placed underneath it. Once the bone graft matures, the bone volume has effectively increased by virtue of the sinus floor being "pushed" up. The sinus membrane can be accessed either from the side through a window or from the bottom through a hole drilled for a dental implant. Check out the ALD Lecture on Laser & Sinus for a grpahic representation. The bone graft used can either be autogenous (from your own body), allogeneic (from another human - cadaver bone), alloplastic (synthetic bone substitute), a xenograft (bone from another species, such as a cow) or morphogenetic (human growth factors or bone morphogenetic proteins made with recombinant DNA technology).
Block Graft
This falls under the category of autogenous (from your own body) bone. A block graft can be taken from any where in the body, but inside the mouth we usually take it from the chin or the back portion of the lower jaw, right about where the wisdom teeth are. This is a more aggressive bone grafting procedure, where larger defects need to be addressed, such as a jaw ridge that is too thin for dental implants to be placed. If the surgery is performed properly, there should not be any visible defect left after the harvesting. The bone usually regenerates itself very efficiently (almost like an extraction socket).
Single Tooth Implant
A single tooth implant is just that - a single implant placed into various places of the upper or lower jaw. Most of these slide series show the steps involved in the placement of a single tooth implant. These implants can be from different manufacturers and thus may be slightly different from case to case. Some of these series will show a dental implant placed and also immediately loaded with a temporary crown or even permanent prosthesis. This is can often be done, but will depend on factors such as initial stability of the implant and bone quality.
Tissue Grafts
Tissue Grafts are often done as a complement to implant surgeries, in order to enhance the tissue esthetics around a dental implant. Tissue grafts are also done in order to enhance the esthetics of certain natural teeth which have lost some gum tissue on their surface. In tissue graft procedures, we either borrow tissue from another area in your mouth, or we use a dermal substitute as a graft material.
Lectures
All lecture files, such as the ALD (Academy of Laser Dentistry) are the original slide series shown during lecture presentations and are fairly intuitive to follow.
