Bicon Bulletin - February 2006

The Bicon Institute has updated its course information and has a new 2006 Educational Opportunities brochure. It contains information about existing courses, as well as information about new courses. Highlights include:

• The Three Day Basic Course and Two Day Advanced Course have been renamed to Surgical and Prosthetic Principles and Advanced Surgical and Prosthetic Techniques.
• A Clinical Observation Day is now available and will provide you with the opportunity to observe clinical care in our new world-class educational facility located in Boston, MA.
• The Sinus Lift Techniques course is a new half-day seminar and is a comprehensive, didactic, hands-on practical and clinical observation course covering both the internal and lateral sinus lift techniques.
• The Ridge Split Techniques course is a new half-day seminar which features lectures and observation of clinical patient care. Participants will gain an understanding of both the mandibular and maxillary ridge splitting procedures.
• Join us in Rome for our three-day Rome Practical Course and experience a surgical and restorative hands-on course along with a private tour of the city.
• Bicon Safaris is another special tour course which offers participants the opportunity of placing implants during a four-day course in South Africa. Included in the course is a visit to a game park.
• Include your staff in marketing dental implants and send them to our one-day Bicon Implants for the Auxiliary Staff course. Participants will gain an understanding of Bicon’s surgical and restorative techniques, as well as practice management techniques

SynthoGraft’s unique design provides for an optimal environment for bone regeneration. With both micro-porosity and nano-porosity, SynthoGraft has a greater surface area compared to other synthetic bone grafting materials — allowing for ideal bone regeneration. As a pure synthetic material, SynthoGraft does not have the inherent risks associated with biologically-derived bone graft materials.

Bicon has recently made a moderate change to the 5.0mm Stealth Shouldered Abutments. A radius has been added to the occlusal aspect of the abutment thus eliminating the sharp edges as shown in the graphics to the right. The modification will also be made to the 5.0mm Stealth Shouldered Abutment Transfer Die. The new style abutments will be slowly phased into the inventory over the next several months.

As noted in Bicon’s Restorative Manual, Bicon recommends taking all impressions with the one-piece acrylic impression sleeves. Direct impressions of the stealth abutments are not recommended. If you are unsure which transfer die to use after taking an impression with the acrylic sleeve, you can safely use the original transfer die. Bicon will not be releasing the new transfers for several more months.