You Want to Continue to Use Stock Abutments because they are Cheap? They Cause Expensive Preventable Complications Dr. Emil Svoboda

Citation: Svoboda Emil LA. So, You Want to Continue to Use Stock Abutments because they are Cheap? They Cause Expensive Preventable Complications. Published to www.ReverseMargin.com. Aug 12th, 2019.

Why do I need to use special custom abutments for the restoration of my implants? I have been using stock abutments for a long time and I have cases that are 20 years old. I am not having any problems. Stock abutments are cheap, and I use the prosthesis to develop the emergence pro-file for the replacement teeth. Why should I pay extra money to a lab to make well designed custom parts? I would need to raise my prices and lose patients. There is only so much people can afford for implant treatment. I need to remain competitive! What is wrong with that?

You could have heard that coming out of my mouth years ago, after having placed and re-stored thousands of dental implants using stock abutment retainers. To my defense, things were a lot different then. Nobody seemed to understand how to control excess cement and many common problems like hyperocclusion, open and tight contacts, overhanging, under-extended, over-extended and open margins, and the causes of misfit implant-abutment and other connections. All these problems are known risk factors for treatment complications. Their causes seemed to be elu-sive and generally thought to be due to the clinician’s and/or lab technician’s inexperience or lack of care.