Southern Implants, Southern Edge Course, February 2024
Southern Implants have been an integral partner of Vermilion for many years, providing one of the highest standards of implant available on the market, whilst being innovative in their designs and approaches to patient care. Since joining Vermilion, I have been shadowing Dr David Offord in his implant cases, seeing how Southern Implants are helping to improve patient’s dentitions and the way their systems are intuitive for the surgeon to use.
When I heard about the Southern Edge course provided by Southern Implants, I jumped at the chance to go. It was an invaluable opportunity to visit the home of Southern Implants in South Africa, meet the founder and learn from world renowned experts on implant dentistry. It was the ideal environment to learn new and advanced techniques, gaining feedback from the Southern Implants team and course providers.
Taking both my husband and 10-month-old baby with me, we jetted off to South Africa- baby’s first holiday!
The first day of the course started with a welcome and introduction to Southern Implants by Mr Graham Blackbeard, founder and owner of Southern Implants. With his engineering background, he has always strived to create the very best in implants, using the highest quality materials, strict manufacturing protocols and working closely with clinicians to develop new ideas and methods for implant dentistry.
Prof PO Ostman provided an overview of anterior implants, emphasising the need for optimal assessment, implant planning and execution, whilst respecting the biological and anatomical constraints. We were introduced to the Co-Axis ®12, which is used regularly in Vermilion to achieve optimal implant placement in the bone but also provide the ideal restorative position for crown and bridgework. We were able to gain hands-on practical skills, using the Co-Axis® and also the Inverta ® system, which provides good surface area to unionise with bone, whilst respecting the spacing available between teeth and bone.
We were also treated to a factory tour which was incredible. It was led by the owner himself, Mr Graham Blackbeard, and he explained every step of the journey when producing implants. Southern Implants are different to many implant manufacturers as they make everything in house, even the tools to create the implants, attachments, components and even the instruments to place them. They are also different in the way they operate the production process, having every machine manned, so there is an operator monitoring each step of the process. This means any errors are picked up quickly and rectified immediately, reducing waste but also ensuring a world class product at the end.
It was so interesting to see the full process, right down to the individual inspection of each implant under microscope- another unique point of Southern Implants. Graham is also a big advocate of testing, analysis and evidencing data to support the implants they produce. We were able to see the lengths which Southern Implants go to, to demonstrate their quality, durability and longevity.
The following days included discussions and demonstrations by Dr Riz Syed and Prof PO Ostman on the use of advanced implants such as Nazalus, Pterygoids and Zygomatic implants which can be used in specific cases where bone is lacking in the jaw. It was a great opportunity to be mentored whilst practising implant placement and learning these new advanced skills. We were also introduced to the Max® implant which can be a great choice for immediate placement after extraction in posterior teeth sites for selected cases. Having the access to the kits, expertise and direct guidance from the team, proved to be very useful and helped me gain more knowledge and skills which I hope to implement in the future.
The last few days of the course involved a combination of treatment planning sessions and getting to enjoy sunrise Safari in the Pilanesberg Reserve. The treatment planning sessions offered a chance to talk through cases from initial presentation to preferred intended outcomes, whilst discussing different approaches and techniques. It was a great opportunity to tackle challenging cases brought by the team, reflecting on what went well and what could be done differently. Gaining insight into the planning process was highly beneficial, and being able to hear everyone’s ideas for achieving a restored dentition was invaluable.
Returning from the Southern Edge course has inspired me, further stoking my motivation to progress my career in Implants and I am excited for what lies ahead at Vermilion.
