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 4555 Riverside Drive
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
(800) 443-8166, (561) 776-6700
Fax: (561) 776-1413
March 16, 2005
Drs. Small, Shapiro, Stein & Caruso
170 Maple Avenue, Suite 504
White Plains, NY 10601
Dear Doctors:
It was nice running into you at the AO last week. As I briefly mentioned, your practice does very well at least in terms of reported non-integration rates. I thought it interesting to provide you with the actual numbers as we see them from your practice, as they are reported under our warranty program.
| From August 2002 through February 2005 |
Shipped Implants |
Non-Integration Reports |
% |
National Average |
| Straight External Hex Osseotite |
1,449 |
42 |
2.9% |
4.0% |
| Tapered Ext. Hex Osseotite NT |
499 |
9 |
1.8% |
5.5% |
| Straight Internal Certain |
550 |
4 |
0.7% |
1.0% |
| Tapered Internal Certain NT |
389 |
4 |
1.0% |
2.5% |
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2,887 |
59 |
2.0% |
4-6% range |
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We probably need to be a little careful with the interpretation of these numbers since this reflects implants shipped and not necessarily implants placed but obviously I do not know how many implants you have actually placed. So the absolute percentages are probably not correct but I suspect that the trends are the same.
What is impressive is that your practice consistently ranks in the top as it relates to implant success for all types of implants. One could argue that it is too early to tell for the internally connected implants but the data does look good!
I know we talked in the past about the challenges with tapered implants: drilling a little deeper with the twist drill to create the apical void for relief of pressure and appropriate placement of the implant (with the ratchet if necessary) are essential to implant survival. It certainly seems that your practice deploys all the right techniques to maximize success.
What is also interesting is the observation for both your practice as well as the nation wide numbers that straight internally connected implants seem to be the most successful implants. This is probably stretching the data somewhat and I realize I do need to be careful and not jump to conclusions but it would be interesting to see if that will indeed be the conclusion.
Again, what is clear from our review of the data is that your practice is among the best in the nation as it relates to implant success rates and I thought it would be fun to know that.
As always, thank you very much for your support. I look forward to meeting you again.
Kind regards,
Bart J. Doedens
President
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