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Implant Placement in the Aesthetic Zone: Using Digital Technologies to Maximize Efficiency and Minimize Chair Time in the Post COVID-19 Era - A Clinical Case Report

Shalin Vinayak

The onset of the Coronavirus global pandemic has created several challenges for the dental practitioner. Despite these difficulties, demand for continued dental treatment remains strong for patients suffering from dental ailments and, in particular, dental emergencies. The objective of a dental practice working through these trying times is to provide relief to these patients in a safe environment. Particular concern is given to maximizing clinical efficiency whilst keeping chair time to a minimum to limit any unnecessary exposure to patients and staff alike.

Tooth fractures are typically considered emergencies that require immediate attention not just to provide relief, but because if left untreated, can result in additional damage and long-term irreversible changes to the existing anatomy that can result in their long-term treatment becoming more challenging, time-consuming and costly. The fracture of teeth in the esthetic zone can be a particularly harrowing experience for patients as it can affect their speech, physical appearance and general self-confidence in addition to physical discomfort and compromised masticatory function.

This case report documents the clinical presentation and subsequent treatment of a patient who suffered from simultaneous fracture of both his maxillary central incisors in an un-favourable manner that rendered them untreatable using conventional tooth-saving treatment measures. A treatment plan was devised to extract these fractured tooth remnants, limit dimensional change of the remaining dental structures and provide a long-term replacement of the extracted teeth using dental implants while still respecting the limitations that the on-going global pandemic has placed on our profession.