The Probe Presents: Implants, Education and NSK

<p><em>Dr Balaji is the principal dentist and owner of The Gallery Dental and Implant Centre in Buckingham and has placed over 5,000 dental implants since he opened the practice in 2008. He is also the founder of ASHA (the Academy of Soft and Hard Tissue Augmentation), running courses and lectures across the UK and Europe</em></p> <p>When I started The Gallery in 2008, the building was a complete shell and we had to start from scratch to establish a dental practice. In the first year, we had five employees and focused mainly on general dentistry.</p> <p>However, my aim was to grow the practice to include teaching and I have been fortunate to have travelled the world, learned different skills and been able to share my knowledge and passion for education, which in turn has helped me to develop my practice.</p> <p>All my skills came together when I developed an interest in implant dentistry. I had learned basic surgical skills early in my career and implant dentistry allows me to utilise these to change patients&#39; smiles and often their lives.</p> <p>I’m now doing more and more complex cases and am building a reputation as a clinician who can solve implant failures. Currently, 30% of my work is regular implant placement, and 70% is complex cases, such as bone and soft tissue augmentation and rehabilitation. I place around 300 to 400 implants a year.</p> <p>The first thing I look for as a clinician is really good reliable equipment that will make my surgical life easier and won’t let me down. Secondly, it needs to be comfortable for the patient and thirdly I look for company support and service. I currently use the NSK Surgic Pro and VarioSurg3 because these tick all the boxes.</p> <p>The VarioSurg3 makes surgery highly predictable, it’s faster and therefore better for the patient and the success rate is excellent. The VarioSurg3 and Surgic Pro can be linked using a simple cable. They sit on top of each other which keeps everything really compact and neat, makes life simpler and only requires one foot pedal. With