Fingerlakes Community Dental Mentorship Program

Course Description

This six-part program teaches general dentists how to place dental implants safely in their own private practices. It combines three live webinars, a full-day hands-on workshop, a supervised surgery, and a restorative lecture.

Participants learn to select healthy patients for implant therapy, obtain physician clearance, and recognize when a referral is the safer choice. Instruction covers osseointegration, surgical anatomy, grafting, and suturing. Participants then apply these skills to guided surgery with MegaGen implants and the DePlaque Guide Right™ system. The program closes with restorative-driven digital planning and final prosthetic design, so participants understand the full path from diagnosis to the final restoration. The surgical guide used in the course is the DePlaque Guide Right™ system, a geometric approach to implant guidance. In an in vitro study published in the International Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Implants (2022), the mean errors of its guide sleeve corrections were smaller than those reported in meta-analyses of in vitro studies of stereolithographic guides, and within the recommendations of the 2012 EAO Consensus Conference. Participants may also choose a surgical guide printed by RTG for their own patient.

Each participant places an implant with one-on-one supervision from Dr. Sean Meitner, Dr. Peter Grace, and Dr. Michael Adsit. The program focuses on healthy patients treated in a private-practice setting. Enrollment is limited to 10 participants.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, clinicians will be able to:

• Screen implant candidates and identify patients who should be referred instead of treated in a private office.
• Prepare medical clearance documentation and explain the standard antibiotic protocol for implant placement.
• Describe the biology of osseointegration, bone density classification (D1–D4), and the surgical anatomy of the mandible and maxilla.
• Explain the history, design, and surface technology of the MegaGen implant system.
• Fabricate a DePlaque diagnostic guide and correct it into a surgical guide using CBCT slides.
• Describe the published in vitro accuracy of the geometric guide sleeve correction used in the DePlaque system.
• Perform core suturing techniques and practice free gingival and connective tissue grafts.
• Place a MegaGen implant on a mandibular model using a DePlaque surgical guide and drills, and describe the vertical sinus lift technique.
• Explain the principles of implant surgery and apply them to case planning.
• Recognize and manage peri-implantitis and implant complications or failure.
• Place an implant under direct supervision and complete the required consent forms, progress notes, and ISQ documentation.
• Describe restorative-driven digital planning, select the appropriate prosthesis type (FP1–FP3, RP4–RP5), and choose final prosthetic materials.