Mike Wiegenstein: You are watching Medical News Network, your trusted source for the latest in medical news and information. I am Mike Wiegenstein, thanks for joining us. On today’s show we take a very special look at osseointegration or bone grafting and dental implants. What’s new, how can it change your life. How can it help you, so if you are missing teeth wear dentures or you know somebody who does and stick around, you don’t want to miss what our guest has to say today.
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Mike Wiegenstein: Welcome back, we are in studio with Dr. David Arpin. Dr. Arpin is a periodontist practicing in the Las Vegas Market. He is a member of the International Congress of Implantology, the American Academy of Implantology and the American Academy of Osseointegration, a small but selected group of dental professional specializing in the regrowth of bone and the implant placement. Dr. Arpin is also a nationally recognized leader in bone growth and regeneration. Dr. Arpin, welcome to the show.
Dr. David Arpin: Thanks for the invite Mike.
Mike Wiegenstein: Now I invited you on the show today because we talk a lot about on the show, I visit with the lot of doctors and I interview a lot of doctors with the latest topics available and one of the reasons I really want to talk to you is because of the new way that you are able to grow bone but before we get into that tell me little about yourself, you are in Vegas now, how did you end up in Vegas, tell me about your history.
Dr. David Arpin: Well, I have been in practice for 17 years, 15 years as a specialist in periodontics with the focus on dental implants. I graduated at the University of California, San Francisco, did residency out in Chicago at North Western University, I practiced in San Francisco for a number of years and then I now practiced in Las Vegas.
Mike Wiegenstein: Okay and I want to you practice with and to me it was a big issue and I made a comment to you are actually in practice with your wife.
Dr. David Arpin: I practice in endodontic and periodontic office, that’s correct.
Mike Wiegenstein: Okay and she is there to help you. Does it have a benefit for you having a specialist from another view point?
Dr. David Arpin: It does because a lot of times the diagnosis from the endodontic specialty actually has a tremendous impact on what we do. So, it was always nice to have the consultation when somebody is right there in the office.
Mike Wiegenstein: Do you think sometimes it allows you to help people that may not be able to help anyone.
Dr. David Arpin: Absolutely and especially it allows us to intervene right then and there.
Mike Wiegenstein: Alright, let’s get into the bone regrowth and the implants. First what are implants, we had a conversation about somebody that was obviously was confused about them. So, tell me in short that what is an implant and what can you do with it.
Dr. David Arpin: Mike, I think people really want to have teeth that look and feel natural and chew like actual functioning teeth. Dental implant is actually just a it is anchored to the jaw bone in a similar fashion as a normal tooth and what happens is that we are able to place these implants virtually any place in the mouth that we want to grow.
Mike Wiegenstein: You brought a video clip to show that.
Dr. David Arpin: I did.
Mike Wiegenstein: Okay, let’s take a look at the clip for quick and try to explain to me whats going on?
Dr. David Arpin: Mike, with this is simply showing is that whether you are missing one tooth, two teeth, three teeth or all your teeth we now have the ability to be able to place the teeth that will look well, function well any place in the mouth.
Mike Wiegenstein: So, you tell me somebody had dentures for 20 years, you can technically give them
Dr. David Arpin: A full set of teeth that is absolutely correct.
Mike Wiegenstein: Just like their normal teeth. No limits.
Dr. David Arpin: That is correct.
Mike Wiegenstein: Alright, let’s get into real quick and I see how all the teeth were in. Lets talk about because this is the big issue I know, bone growth, bone regeneration. Tell me what you are doing in my understanding want to get some clips later is it up until very recently and you are not in that they always cut a piece of bone from somewhere and put it in. So, tell me little about what you are doing that’s different.
Dr. David Arpin: Essentially what it is, is that when people want teeth to look and function naturally the position of the tooth is well it needs to be where it needs to be and often times we find that people don’t have sufficient bone to be able to place in the implant where we would like the tooth to be. So, growing the bone back recapturing that to have a stable platform is something that we absolutely need to do.
Mike Wiegenstein: Alright I want to stop you and ask you real quick, dental implants are not recognized specialty, to my understanding anybody can do them. General dentist could have done might never done one before could do one -- course and do it. It doesn’t really have to take the course, does he?
Dr. David Arpin: Well, dental implants were more than simply drilling a hole in the bone and placing the screw in it.
Mike Wiegenstein: Well, that’s what I want to get you because you are talking about rebuilding the bones you could place the implant where it is supposed to go. I brought a picture and obviously to show that somebody had put an implant that was sticking outside of someone’s jaw. In your graciousness, I don’t want to embarrassing but by showing it but
Dr. David Arpin: Do implants get put in?
Mike Wiegenstein: I mean do you see in your practice where somebody puts and they just put where were the bones happens to be where its
Dr. David Arpin: Well, the biggest problem is that when people actually lose their bone we are then left with trying to figure out how to reconstruct the teeth and their natural position. So, what we do is we actually recreate the bone to be able to place the teeth in their natural function and position.
Mike Wiegenstein: Right, I want to get back to because I know we have some clips where everybody is seeing but traditionally bone in dentistry, bone grafting they have taken surgically a piece of bone from your hip, your knee, your chin, basically then bolted it into where the bone was missing and hope that they grow together.
Dr. David Arpin: That’s true, if you really think about it. Your body already knows how to make bone and it takes living bone to grow new bone Mike and so the only way to capture that in the past when we need to grow a large amount of bone back was to actually harvest it from somewhere else in the body. We don’t really need to do that, its
Mike Wiegenstein: Just quick point though those normally my experience has been the harvest points but they got it from the hip the knee the chin long after the implant is healed those tend to still be problem points because they were surgery points.
Dr. David Arpin: They certainly can add some complications to the procedure, they make it more time consuming that often times requires a general anesthetic and essentially what we are trying to do is harvest the actual bone to get some living cells to be able to grow the new bone.
Mike Wiegenstein: Real quick, with -- time is an issue, what is that you are doing to regrow that bone now that is different in dental medicine from how its ever been done and where do that come from.
Dr. David Arpin: Actaully the procedure utilizes a routine technique already in use by physicians. What we have been doing is actually taking the living cells from the reservoir of the cells that actually grow bone namely from the top of the hip, so we don’t have to take the actual graft that’s living to get the cells, we can actually just take the cells themselves.
Mike Wiegenstein: Now these are the cells that create that make bone. These are what your hip is producing to rebuild your leg bone, your arm bone.
Dr. David Arpin: Absolutely.
Mike Wiegenstein: And now where do this technology come from?
Dr. David Arpin: Technology came from when we are actually looking at the study of why does a graft work because the graft works because it has all the living nutrients it has cells that actually create bone. So, really it’s the cells that are living to create bone that are necessary to create bone and that’s really what we need.
Mike Wiegenstein: And you told me they have used this oncologist have used it, orthopedic surgeons have been using this technology.
Dr. David Arpin: Orthopedic surgeons use it and it’s a routine thing. Your body already knows how to make its own bone. If you were to break a leg Mike your body knows how to repair that. So, essentially what we do is we simply take the repaired mechanism or the cells from where they are reservoir to where we need them to grow new bone.
Mike Wiegenstein: And this is as opposed to what we call is -- bone in a bottle or donor bone from someone else. These are biologically genetically a perfect match for your body.
Dr. David Arpin: They are and what is
Mike Wiegenstein: Does it build better bone than if I was to use bone in a bottle or graft bone from a cadaver.
Dr. David Arpin: Well, only living bone can grow living bone and so what we need to have is we can grow larger amounts which will then allow us to place implants, where we would like the implants to be. In other words, let’s say you are missing, let’s say you have been wearing a denture for an extended period of time and we have lost a tremendous amount of bone. What we can do now is we can actually grow large amounts of bone where in the past the grafts were limited to the extent of what the bone could grow.
Mike Wiegenstein: Alright, we have to take a quick break. When we come back I want to, I know you have a lot of video clips on bridges and you are very -- on bridges and implants, costs and basically the elimination with this procedure. You are watching Medical News Network. We are in studio with Dr. Arpin, we will be right back.
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