Elena Balcázar

The concept of prosthetically driven implant dentistry is well recognized as a mandatory treatment philosophy in every clinical scenario involving dental implants in order to reduce the incidence of esthetic, biological and mechanical complications. Nevertheless, how can we perform the reconstructive (hard and soft tissues) surgeries according to the prosthetic planning? How much bone do we need to regenerate to place the implant in an ideal restorative 3Dposition?. Nowadays, the use of a virtual planning software is required in order to perform a prosthetically driven implant placement as well as a prosthetically guided bone regeneration. The following short presentation aims to describe this treatment approach, which comprises 7 steps of a backwards philosophy in reconstructive implant dentistry where the rationale of this planning is to start with the final prosthetic design in a virtual planning software (CoDiagnostiX) superimposing the DICOM file from the CBCT, the STL file from the intraoral scanner and the proposed prosthetic project before the alveolar ridge reconstruction and prosthetically driven implant placement are performed.

Elena Balcázar, D.D.S., M.Sc., received her Master’s Degree in Periodontics and Oral Implantology from Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León and she also studied a Fellowship in Periodontics at Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry. She is an ITI Fellow and currently she is an Associate Professor in the Periodontology Department at Universidad de La Salle Bajío and in the International Dental Program (CIRO) at the same university. Her private practice is limited to periodontal plastic surgery and implant surgery at Prostoperio in León, Mexico.