A Material to Help Patients Heal
James Cope, DDS
Although I've been running a family dental practice in El Dorado Hills, California, for 30 years, for the past 6 years, I have also been in partnership with my son, Benjamin Cope, DDS. Along with my wife, Kimberly Cope, RN, we have worked together on many IV sedation cases for anxious patients who require dental rehabilitation with operative, prosthetic, periodontal, endodontic, and surgical/restorative implant solutions.
I began using the GUIDOR® easy-graft® CLASSIC alloplastic bone grafting system about 2 years ago, and it was "love at first placement." Since I began using it, it has benefitted my practice greatly. GUIDOR easy-graft CLASSIC is the first particulate bone grafting material that is designed to be syringed directly into a bone defect and then harden into a stable, porous scaffold in minutes, eliminating the need for a dental membrane in many cases.
I have used this bone grafting system hundreds of times, and I have yet to experience a failure when closing an antral opening at the time of extraction, stabilizing a fractured buccal plate of bone, regenerating bone over a fenestration defect at the time of implant placement, or managing bleeding problems for patients on anticoagulant therapies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the biggest "black swan event" of my life in dentistry, easily eclipsing the 2008 credit default swap debacle. As dentists, many of us are concerned about how our unique and important work, which often creates aerosols, will continue to be possible without a vaccine. When our office was closed and we were only allowed to appoint patients for emergencies, I was performing proportionately more extractions. In my opinion, the use of GUIDOR easy-graft CLASSIC is superior to any other technique to help patients heal quickly and uneventfully after an extraction. It provides a simple and efficient way to obturate bony defects. Patients treated with this bone grafting material are less likely to need sutures, to have pain, to experience bleeding problems, or to develop "dry socket." Therefore, a follow-up visit is not usually needed, which helps us adhere to stay-at-home guidelines and be as safe as possible during this time.
GUIDOR easy-graft CLASSIC has many great features, but its ease of use is definitely the most important one for me. The process is much simpler when compared with the time, expense, and consent issues associated with placing biologics and a membrane. In addition, to fit the surgical need, GUIDOR easy-graft CLASSIC can be formed to exactly support and cover, which is much more difficult when using calcium sulfate grafts.
With the COVID-19 practice guidelines in effect, many dentists are very concerned about overhead and material costs and may be reluctant to buy anything new; however, the benefits that GUIDOR easy-graft CLASSIC provides to both practices and patients absolutely makes it worth trying.
Key Takeaways
> An easy-to-handle material, GUIDOR easy-graft CLASSIC is syringed directly into the defect
> After contact with body fluids, the material can be shaped and contoured as it hardens into a stable, porous scaffold in approximately 1 minute
> GUIDOR easy-graftCLASSIC is ideal for ridge preservation and filling voids around immediately placed implants
> The material is 100% synthetic, fully resorbable, and packaged for unit-dose application
About the Author
James Cope, DDS
Private Practice
El Dorado Hills, California
