Zest Anchors—Worldwide Leader in Attachment Solutions
Patient awareness and acceptance of dental implants as the premium restorative option “has grown to incredible proportions,” says Paul Zuest, CEO. “Through education and marketing initiatives, dentists are offering this choice to patients, who are then telling other patients—there’s a positive word of mouth.”
Zest Anchors is a worldwide leader in manufacturing of dental attachments for implants. “In our capacity working as a manufacturing partner with a major portion of the dental implant companies in the world, Zest has a unique opportunity to gauge the health of the dental implant industry,” Zuest says. “What we have seen recently is that patients who had delayed implant treatment due to the uncertainties of the recession are now coming back to the dental office, and the implant manufacturing companies are definitely rebounding quickly as a result.
“Our main product is the Locator® Implant Attachment, which is machined to fit all major-brand implants,” Zuest explains. “The great benefit of the Locator is that it has a self-aligning design that guides the patient into the proper seating of the overdenture, which solves the problem of patients biting in their dentures. Our design has a skirt that guides the patient into the proper seating. If the patient does bite it down, it is already aligned and goes directly in the proper seating, without damaging any components. That has been a major feature of this product.
“The next thing we did was provide long-lasting attachment life by doubling the retentive surface area—what we call dual retention. When the Locator came out in 2001, these advanced features helped make our products the top-selling attachments for implants in the world.”
In Zuest’s opinion, Zest Anchor products are uniquely designed to take full advantage of changing technology. “For example, advances by the dental implant manufacturers in the technology of CAD/CAM have allowed them to produce custom-milled titanium bars for splinting implants. The addition of machine-threaded sites in the bars allows our dental attachments to be easily placed and changed, because the attachments can be threaded right in, and allows the overdenture to attach them. If anything happens, the clinician can simply unthread it and replace it in a single dental office visit.”
To address the future of dental implants, Zest Anchors is working to produce a smaller version of the Locator Implant Attachment. “This smaller size will be more suitable for the trend that we see now—that is, companies are producing smaller-diameter implants for use in the anterior ridge region. So a mini-size Locator Attachment will allow optimal esthetics in the anterior region for the removable implant-retained overdentures when used with these smaller-diameter implants that all the implant companies are going to.”
Zest provides support to clinicians by offering restorative courses in collaboration with the implant manufacturers. “After the implant manufacturers present the surgical portion, we do the restorative portion—this helps advance the use of implants for overdenture treatment. These are live courses held at the state dental meetings or sometimes in conjunction with the dental universities.” In addition, the Zest Anchors’ company web site is a good source for videos and articles on the subject of implant-retained overdentures. “All this is helping to make the standard of care a removable attachment-retained appliance, rather than a regular denture plate. This is very important to patient health and quality of life.”
Zest Anchors LLC
2061 Wineridge Place, Escondido, CA 92029
(800) 262-2310
https://www.zestanchors.com
