Note - Venue for this meeting is the
Novotel Sydney at Darling Harbour

In 1980 Branemark and his colleagues published a paper on the long-term results of root-form titanium implants. Their research changed dentistry forever. Although the initial embracement of the Swedish ideas was slow and carefully measured by dental academia and the profession, gradually the ball began to roll and this past decade has seen an explosion in the acceptance of implant dentistry by the profession and by the public.

Implant dentistry is not without its pitfalls. In my opinion, it is one of the hardest areas of clinical practice, with an ever increasing patient demand for an immediate fix and a perfect aesthetic result, and one that must last forever!

The original Swedish patient cohort was very carefully selected and screened and their only expectation was fixed prosthetic function; aesthetics were of secondary concern. They were true dental cripples who were fully edentulous in at least one arch and therefore made an ideal trial group. The cost of treatment was mostly covered by the State and even long-term maintenance of their superstructures carried no personal financial burden for these patients.

The realities of treating patients with dental implants in private practice are quite different to the Swedish public health system. Our patients are largely self-funded with the ever-increasing demands of consumers. No longer were they fully edentulous dental cripples, grateful for anything; now they were dentate except for a single missing tooth or a few missing teeth.

The extension and evolution of the original Branemark protocols to partial arch and single tooth replacement were largely developed in private practice, and the implant manufacturers as well as we dentists were flying by the seat of our pants, with all of the resultant complications and unexpected headaches and heartaches! Aesthetics, and not just fixed function, has become high on the patient wish list. Immediate, fixed function has become routine…. and through all of this evolution, the threat of litigation hangs over our heads like the Sword of Damocles, suspended on a single golden thread!

Join me on a journey through time, during which I will share with you the brutal realities of implant dentistry in private practice. Without doubt, our successes as implant dentists more than make up for our failures, but it is only close examination of these failures that will make us better clinicians.



Dr Andrê J. Viljoen
BSc, BChD(Stell); MDS, Dip Clin Dent.(Syd), FRACDS, FICD, FADI, FPFA.

Dr Viljoen works in solo private practice in Garran, Canberra as well as maintaining privileges at the local hospital for treatment under GA. Dr Viljoen has placed some 10000 implants since he began in 1984 and his practice has been limited to implant dentistry and dento-alveolar surgery since 1993. Dr Viljoen carrys out both surgical and prosthodontic phases of treatment and has lectured both locally and abroad on many aspects of implant dentistry. He is currently a lecturer and mentor for candidates undertaking the Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Oral Implants) at the University of Sydney.

BSc (University of Stellenbosch) - 1975.
BChD (University of Stellenbosch) - 1980.
Certificate in Pain and Anxiety Control (ASAASD) - 1989.
Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists - 1989.
MDS (University of Sydney) - 1992.
Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Conscious Sedation and Pain Control) - University of Sydney, 1994.
Diplomat of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists – 1995
Fellow of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons - 1997
Fellow of the International College of Dentists - 1998
Fellow of the Academy of Dentists International - 2001
Fellow of the Pierre Fauchard Academy – 2003

Tuesday 24th August 2010
Novotel Sydney on Darling Harbour
100 Murray Street
Pyrmont NSW, 2009

Parking available at Harbourside Car Park (Wilson Parking)

Registration & Pre-Dinner drinks: 6.00pm for 6.30pm start