My First Implant Restoration, Start to Finish

A screen-share walkthrough of restoring a single implant, the restorative side from start to finish. Made for dentists doing their first one.

Four things I got wrong or didn’t know going in:

• There are two item codes for an implant crown, the crown and the abutment. I quoted one. Check the schedule before you quote, not after.
• Two adjacent implants need two scan bodies. I went in with one, planning to scan a site and move it across. The second scan overwrote the first. The only reason I got through the appointment was a PEEK backup body sitting on the tray.
• A PEEK scan body doesn’t image like titanium. On the verification radiograph it’s far less obvious whether it’s fully seated. Worth knowing before you’re looking at a film wondering if you’ve got a problem.
• Teflon goes over all the exposed titanium in the access channel, not just the screw head. Miss it and you get a grey cast through the plug. Small thing, but it’s there for the life of the crown.

None of that is clinical skill. It’s knowing what to have ready before you sit down, and I only knew because I asked.