OsteoGen®: Simplicity, Consistency, and Predictability Is Formula for Success

With more than 40 years' experience in restorative and implant dentistry, Robert J. Miller, DDS, has learned to put the clinical outcome first, and believes everything else falls into place after that. "For me, simplicity combined with consistency and predictability is my formula for success," says the Delray Beach, Florida, practitioner who has been placing implants since 1985.

Miller was performing his first regenerative procedures by the late 1980s. "I've spent decades devoted to not just developing surgical protocols but also to finding the best biomaterial or combination of biomaterials to get successful clinical outcomes. The most important thing is the clinical outcome. When a procedure can be done more minimally invasively, this accrues to patient comfort and healing downstream. I prefer to use a product that is easy to prepare, easy to place, and almost devoid of complications and failures."

His desire to "push the envelope" to find the best materials possible led him to collaborate with Impladent Ltd., a manufacturer of regenerative solutions since 1984. Today, as part of the evolution of regenerative biomaterials, Miller uses Impladent's OsteoGen^® Plugs, Strips, and Blocks with platelet-rich fibrin (PRF). They combine OsteoGen bioactive resorbable calcium apatite crystals with a bovine achilles tendon collagen matrix to create a structure that mimics the organic and inorganic components of physiologic bone.

"[Dentistry] is moving away from singular graft materials, and now we call them a composite or hybrid graft, which is actually a combination of two or more dissimilar products that help you achieve a better response and synergy than you would get with either material separately," Miller explains. "When we use a hybrid or composite graft that is collagen-based and a bone graft that releases calcium ions, we're addressing two of the most important pathways to bone regeneration. The use of PRF growth factors takes it one step further."

The OsteoGen Plugs, Strips, and Blocks with PRF, which Miller uses for "a broad spectrum of cases," provide what he calls "the trifecta." "The trifecta is a fully resorbable calcium apatite bone graft material (OsteoGen), a collagen matrix-containing graft material that potentiates precipitation of new bone, and growth factors that up-regulate the metabolism of osteoblasts. These three together yield a superior response when regenerating lost hard structures."

Miller says that using OsteoGen, which in many cases is done flaplessly, helps improve the efficiency of his grafting procedures due to the ease of delivery to the site. "If a tooth is hopeless or fractured, the placement of an OsteoGen Plug hydrated with autologous growth factors simplifies my procedure. I typically get soft-tissue closure within 7 days, and the quality of the bone that we regenerate over the shortest amount of time is superior to any other graft that I've used over many decades."

Robert J. Miller, MA, DDS, DABOI, DICOI, FACD
Private Practice,
Delray Beach, Florida

Impladent Ltd.
800-526-9343
impladentltd.com