Thursday: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Friday: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Tuition: $1495.
CE Credits: 16 Credits

Course Descriptions and Objectives:

Patients will often do anything they can to avoid wearing a complete denture including staying in a failing dentition when dentistry offers improvements. Overdentures help overcome the obstacle of the failing dentition. The use of residual abutments to stabilize and retain a denture as an overdenture is nothing new, but often misunderstood. This course will address the option of overdentures with implants as the abutments. We will discuss how the number and location of abutments will influence the final design of the overdenture itself.

Overdentures are different on implants than they are on teeth. We’ll discuss those differences and provide options to make them similar. Each participant will learn how many implants are necessary and where they should be placed. We’ll discuss many attachment options that are on the market. These attachments will be broken down into simple categories to understand their similarities. We’ll create clear guidelines for selecting one attachment over another.

Participants review state-of-the-art procedures for the highest quality overdentures while we complete the clinical procedures of the three most influential steps associated with denture fabrication. This includes initial and final impressions, the development of the centric relation record as well as delivery of a denture with finalization of the occlusal scheme.

As an extension of the lecture portion of this course participants will complete two hands on exercises. We will make final impressions on the models with two different techniques to compare the results. We will also complete a pick-up of an attachment under a complete denture. The denture and model can be taken home as a demonstrator model for patient education.

Participants leave with increased confidence and a clear understanding of:

• How the number of implants and location of abutments influences the outcome
• How the anatomic limitations should direct the number and type of attachments
• Attachment options: is one better than another? Which ones–and when?
• Record Collection: Using esthetics and phonetics to develop wax rims
• How to overcome limitations with digital soft tissue scanning
• Impression Techniques: What to use while we wait on scanning soft tissue
• Centric Relation: The most critical step to denture success – made easier
• Prosthesis Delivery: Nothing’s more important than occlusion
• Includes hands-on workshops for attachment pick up and impression techniques

M. Nader Sharifi, D.D.S., M.S. holds a certificate in prosthodontics and a masters degree in biomaterials from Northwestern University. He received his dental education at the University of Illinois. He has presented more than 500 lectures covering numerous topics on restorative dentistry earning him recognition from esteemed study groups, societies and associations across the nation and internationally.

Dr. Sharifi currently maintains a full-time private practice of prosthodontics in Chicago’s downtown loop and uses his experience as a five day a week wet gloved dentist to ensure time saving and cost effective care are represented in his presentations. In 2007, the Chicago Dental Society honored him with the Gordon Christenson Distinguished Lecturer Award. He has also been honored with Fellowship in the American College of Dentists and Membership in the American Academy of Restorative Dentistry – both in 2010.