*I need help. I am considering two systems: MIS7 and Biohorizons.
Which one would be a solid first system to invest in? I’m leaning towards MIS7 mostly because it’s cheaper and my mentor uses it and would be able to mentor me through tough cases. Also, he knows how to mix and match prosthetic parts with off-brand stuff which makes the net effective price very very low. Like under $200 for the whole implant and crown and abutment, etc.*
Ooooh this is a tricky one. Both of those systems are fine. They are the standard internal hex implant.
You’re right, MIS is cheaper. Fine. I think you would have to determine what is important to you. Let's see what things we should consider when evaluating our first implant system:
If the priority is getting a cheap price, you could buy them from Hi-Tech Implants. Those are SUPER cheap.
If your priority is customer service, Hi-Tech would not be your best bet.
The factors to consider are:
Price - (you want it to be affordable), but you also don’t want to be the dentist that buys the cheap implants. (What will other’s think?)
Convenience - is it easy and intuitive to order? is their catalog like 500 different items?
Customer Service – what happens if you get a failed implant? does the company care? what is their refund policy?
Restorabiity – Are labs comfortable with restoring the implant easily? Systems such as Neodent are often not liked by labs.
Ease of use – You don’t want a kit that has 100 different items in it.
Barrier to entry – Its best if you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg before you decide that you love the system.
Education – does the system make it easy to learn? Can it help empower your staff?
Reputation - Does your implant need to one of the original big names? Will other doctors be watching and judging you if you don't use a $300+ implant?
So, all of these things are important. But you need to determine what things are most important to you.
I would argue that these days it is backwards to think that you need to buy a $300+ implant in order to prove that you are using quality materials. There are plenty of quality products below that price point that prove that you do not need to pay a superpremium price in order to provide a great clinical result.
The cheap implants from Hi-Tech work. The more expensive implants from Biohorizons work. And so do the hyper expensive implants from Straumann.
Let's discuss this more in the next entry