HANDS-ON TRAINING FOR 30 LOCAL DENTISTS
Thirty local dentists received hands-on-training on bone preservation and regeneration yesterday from dental expert Dr John Giblin.
The procedures taught will enable local dentists to have more options after a patient’s tooth is extracted, such as a bridge, a denture or implant.
The training, the first of its kind in Fiji, was part of the Fiji Dental Association’s 47th Annual Conference.
Association president Dr Vikash Singh said patients who were not candidates for dental implants previously because there was inadequate bone would now be able to have those procedures.
“It’s a socket preserving procedure and it also deals with defects that would have prevented any such implants from being placed where a tooth had been extracted.” Dr Giblin, who conducted the training, has spent 44 years in dentistry and he invented the technique of extraction and bone regeneration
back in 1999.
Dr Giblin said the particular procedure was not yet taught in dental schools anywhere in the world so it was a very good learning opportunity for the dentists participating.
“It is a bone preservation and regeneration workshop for clinical situations where you do not have enough bone to place dental implants,” he said.
“The participants had models to work on and experiment so they should be able to conduct the procedure on their own and offer more options to patients in terms of regeneration.”