How to Identify a Dental Implant ?

How to identify a dental implant?

Each year, more than 8 million dental implants are placed worldwide. Unfortunately, the traceability of each implant is not always well preserved. As a dentist, you have probably wondered what implant is that? In this article, we are going to share a process and best practices to successfully identify a dental implant.

Step1: Take a high-quality radiograph

To be able to identify an implant, we need to look at all its features, especially those that can differentiate it from other implants. Most of the time, a panoramic radiograph is not enough to provide all the necessary information as they lack details. It is better to take an intraoral peri-apical radiograph with an angulator to obtain an orthogonal image with sharp details.

In order to get a high-quality radiograph :

• First, adjust the X-ray tube according to the required clinical parameters.
• Place the X-ray film parallel to the implant you wish to identify so that you can capture the entire implant.
• Adjust the angulator and place the X-ray tube to acquire the image.

This is a very important step as all details of the implant will be used for identification.

For example, the radiograph on the left side was taken with an angulation and exposure that did not allow visualization of the connection and shape of the implant threads. The radiograph on the right side is much better.

Step 2: Conduct the clinical examination

Intraoral clinical elements are also very important for the identification of dental implants. The characteristics of the prosthetic parts that fit on the implant provide valuable information.

The shape of the prosthetic and healing screw, the type of abutment connection, the internal part of the implant are elements that you can photograph to be able to visualize them more easily later.

Step 3: Determine the implant features

Once you have a high-quality periapical radiograph, you can visualize the implant characteristics: bone level, type of connection, type of thread, etc. The most important features are summarized in the following nomenclature.

Be careful, depending on the resolution and orientation of the image of the implant, some characteristics may not be visible on the radiograph: for example, micro-threads, apex grooves or holes.

Step 4: Search in an implant database

It exists several websites that list implants available on the market, including Spotimplant.com.

There, you can filter the implants according to the technical features you identify and reduce the list of possible implants by elimination.

Some features are more meaningful than others: for example, very few models have an oval hole. In contrast, there are thousands of implants with a conical body shape.

The more you will combine features, the more you will narrow down your searches.

Despite everything, you still can't identify the implant?

Unfortunately, in some cases, this approach is not sufficient because:

• It takes a significant amount of time;
• It requires some knowledge of the technical features and filters, available on the implant search engine;
• It sometimes does not provide satisfactory results, since a large number of implants share the same technical characteristics;
• You may still have doubts and need a second opinion.

In this regard, Spotimplant has developed an algorithm based on artificial intelligence to automatically identify an implant from a simple x-ray, by calculating the similarities of your implant radiograph with a database made up of thousands of others of all brands.

Using the x-ray identification tool is quick and easy:

1. Log on to www.spotimplant.com;
2. Go to the Implant Identification section;
3. Upload your periapical radiograph;
4. Receive the identification report with the most similar implants assigned to your radiograph.

Photograph Credit: Dr. Antoine Galibourg

About Spotimplant:

Spotimplant is an artificial intelligence-based implant restoration assistant. Our solution, under the control of implantology experts, allows you to identify an unknown implant, find its compatible components and learn the associated technical specifications.
Our search engine references more than 300 manufacturers worldwide and 3500 implant models.