Customized Abutments (dental lab technology articles Book 26)

The use of prefabricated abutments is often labor intensive and costly when we deal with difficult cases and when the result we wish to achieve should have a high level of function, aesthetics and durability. Customized abutments like the ones made by Atlantis, on the other hand, are designed without the need for grinding and adjusting and even in the most difficult cases optimal treatment options are available to us. One particular challenge that we have to face quite often in our daily work in the lab, for example, is an implant that was not positioned properly prosthetically because the structure of the jawbone might have prevented it. In such cases the technician is required to find an appropriate prosthetic solution that lets him achieve a good and durable overall therapeutic result.
The limitations of conventional abutments as illustrated is based on the case of a patient who received two implant systems , which had been placed divergently in completely different directions. In this case castable abutments were used. It was possible to create a common insertion direction for a screw-retained bridge. This approach, however, is not only costly and time-consuming but always carries the risk of failure due to misfit or miscast. Even with an apparently perfect fit it can happen that continual applied pressure due to occlusal force causes problems that lead to unphysiological load increase.

Keywords: Abutment, CAD/CAM, Implant Construction, Customized Abutment, Set-up, Software