Jean-Marc Fourcade, a dental surgeon based in Morlaàs near Pau (France), has been practicing implantology for 17 years. He shares his perspective on the evolution of clinical practice, patient, expectations, and how implant solutions have adapted to support these changes.
Implantology now represents 50% of your practice. How has it evolved since you started?
When we first incorporated it into our treatment plans, implantology was limited to simple procedures, mainly replacing a missing posterior tooth. We didn’t have the infrastructure for it, and it required careful organization. The implementation was complicated, and we also had to overcome patient concerns around pain, cost, and reliability. To be able to offer proven and easily reproducible protocols, I went to Canada to train with Doctor Yvan POITRAS, to benefit from his knowledge, the reproducibility of his gestures, and his pragmatism.
Has implantology become more complex over time?
The implant placement protocols have become more streamlined and standardized, while the surgeries we perform have grown more complex. That’s precisely what helped democratize implantology, enabling us to carry out longer, more advanced procedures, such as combining bone regeneration with implant placement.
Patients today are far less hesitant about implants than they were a few years ago. Implantology has truly become more accessible and is easier to propose, with long-term success and improved coverage from supplementary health insurance providers.
How do implants support these evolving needs, particularly the In-Kone® range developed by Global D? For which clinical cases are you now using the new In-Kone® WD Platform?
In the past, implant placement depended heavily on the clinical’s experience and dexterity. We had limited options in terms of implant types and prosthetic components. Today, Global D’s therapeutic solutions, especially the In-Kone® range, allow us to address a wide variety of cases with a single protocol. This significantly reduces procedural complexity and allows us to focus on implant positioning, which is key to future prosthetic success.
The placement of this new In-Kone® WD implant is in line with this approach of responding to a wider range of indications, without sacrificing the surgical and prosthetic advantages of the In-Kone® range. It’s truly a Swiss Army knife of implantology, there’s almost always the right material for the right indication, and it’s still very easy to use.
What are the main benefits of this implant platform?
This new prosthetic platform is better suited to withstand occlusal forces, especially in patients with parafunctional habits such as bruxism. Provided the follow-up is adequate, the In-Kone® WD platform offers enhanced mechanical strength thanks to a wider implant-abutment connection.
It functions just like the original In-Kone® range and retains the same philosophy that made it successful. With this additional platform option, the In-Kone® range has become the main reference for my implant system for both anterior and posterior areas.
Its extended line provides excellent biological integration suited to various tissue types. Intuitive ancillaries make impression-taking and implant placement easy. The WD is a perfect extension of the line.
What challenges will you face in implantology over the next few years?
Our patients are becoming increasingly demanding, especially when it comes to aesthetics. They still haven’t grasped the fact that an implant will never perform as well as a natural tooth. It will never react like a tooth. It’s a comfortable, aesthetic and reliable compromise, but one that needs to be put into perspective. On the other hand, we are also faced with an emerging low-cost market, offering treatments that are certainly less expensive, but with technical compromises that are hardly compatible with the durability of reconstructions. It is vital to enable conscientious practitioners to offer high-quality implants at affordable prices, so that patients don’t find themselves in situations that are difficult to make up for.
A word from the Global D marketing team
“A complete range of In-Kone® implants, Bone Level revisited” Today, clinical and prosthetic practices are evolving. On the one hand, we are seeing an increase in the manufacture of one-piece crowns by machining, and on the other, we are treating younger and younger patients, some of whom suffer from bruxism. For this reason, we have expanded our range of In-Kone® implants.
In-Kone® WD platform implants have been developed with the aim of offering practitioners an additional implant alternative, so that they can extend their indications to patients with greater masticatory forces, while remaining confident about the durability of the treatment. This new implant, with its enhanced mechanical strength, is particularly well suited to the posterior sector (the most mechanically exposed sector), thanks to its wider prosthetic connector. It will enable you to treat more indications, while retaining the original In-Kone® philosophy, clinical benefits and ease of use that have made it such a success for over 15 years.
Useful links:
Concept brochure – In-Kone®, Bone Level implantology revisited
In-Kone®, Bone Level revisited approach