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Treatments

Who is a prosthodontist?

A prosthodontist is a dental specialist who diagnoses, treatment plans, and rehabilitates the oral function, appearance, and health of patients associated with missing or deficient teeth and/or oral and maxillofacial tissues using biocompatible substitutes (American Dental Association, May 2018). These substitutes can be crowns, bridges, veneers, dentures, implant fixtures/crowns, bone graft substitutes, 3D printed/milled prosthetics, silicones, etc.

To become a prosthodontist, after graduating 4 years of dental school, one has to further pursue another 3 or 4 years of intense residency training. Prosthodontic residents experience with complicated tooth- and implant-supported full-mouth reconstructions.

A prosthodontist is like a quarterback in dentistry because most of the patient cases are extremely complex/challenging, referred by other dentists.

Who is a board-certified prosthodontist?

In general, board certification means that a specialist has successfully passed an examination established by an independent authority (board) for the specialty. A Board Certified Prosthodontist has passed a rigorous four-part examination conducted by the American Board of Prosthodontics (ABP) with both written and oral exams. Because it is a very challenging and demanding examination, only 30 percent of all prosthodontists become board certified.

Surgical Prosthodontics

According to the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) guideline in 2012, endosseous implant placement therapy, along with concrete surgical principles, has become a mandatory curriculum in all post-graduate Prosthodontics programs in the United States.

Plus, the American Board of Prosthodontics has established a surgical implant competency section where a candidate should present their clinical documentation on both tooth-bounded & non-bounded surgical cases, with potential adjunct soft/hard tissue augmentation.

The principal objective of Prosthodontics has always been the very value of dimensional perceptibility, precision & accuracy, all of which is now a primary leading core element in the field of guided implant surgery, particularly in full-mouth rehabilitation.