To help maintain your enthusiasm, the ASID have an interesting programme planned for the coming year with speakers on different topics and implant systems. The ASID is fortunate indeed to have members with a vast range of knowledge and experience who can and are willing to give guidance to the newer members who may be less experienced.

Certainly the society is unique in establishing the implant accreditation programme which provides fundamental training for practitioners wishing to be involved in implants. This programme has received universal praise for its role in providing an excellent introduction to dental implantology and at least one faculty recognizes it as a prerequisite for one of its proposed postgraduate implant programmes. Congratulations and many thanks are extended to the Education Committee who have spent an incredible amount of time and energy to bring these courses to fruition.

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The next level III course will be held in Brisbane on the 18^th, 19^th & 20^th June and is open to all who have successfully completed the level II course. Those who have already completed a previous level III course are encouraged to attend as there will be a lot of new material presented. A special discount will be available to previous level III participants. Details will be forwarded to all members by the education committee shortly.

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The next dinner meeting of the ASID(NSW Branch) will be held on Wednesday March 10^th in the Cullen room at the University of Sydney Function Centre. Apologies to those who may have been confused by the typographical error in the meeting notice in the Feb ADA Newsletter in which the date was printed as Feb 10 instead of March 10.

In accord with our aims of providing up to date information in all areas of implantology the topic for our meeting will be

"The Reimplant - A Unique Anatomical Implant".

Our speakers will be Dr David Cox, who will speak on indications and contraindications, Werner Sauer, lab technician, who will speak on laboratory fabrication of individual implants, and Dr Ian Burns who will give us some case presentations.

Dr Burns, a member of ASID, has used a limited number of Reimplant procedures over the past 2-3 years and will present several of his cases. He believes that in many cases the use of an implant which reproduces the shape of the natural tooth root provides the ideal system to maintain the alveolar bone, and consequently the soft tissue contours, following extraction of a tooth. He believes it solves the problem of creating a harmonious emergence profile and natural gingival appearance post treatment. Dr Burns believes that probably more than with other implant systems, Reimplant treatment is technique sensitive and should only be attempted with due regard to adequate treatment planning and careful implementation of the treatment protocols. He will discuss some of the problems he has encountered.

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The Federal Committee has been working extremely hard with several meetings running late into the night.

We have three special projects underway at the moment:

1) Level III accreditation course (June 18-20) to be held in Brisbane.

Dr William Chong from Singapore will be the educator with two days of lectures and a hands-on and exam on day three. Dr Chong comes with some impressive credentials and everyone is welcome to this much recommended course. Only those who have successfully passed the Level II Accreditation exam, however, may take the Level III exam.

2) Negotiations are progressing very well with the Health Insurance Commission with regard to allowing qualified members of ASID to refer their patients for CT and for them to be able to claim under Medicare. The HIC have written to say that, shortly, they would like a meeting with representatives of ASID to discuss and finalize the matter. This matter is a clear case of discrimination against general practitioner implantologists in favour of specialists. It should be remembered that, as in America, the majority of implants are provided by general practitioner implantologists.

3) The ICOI-Asia Pacific Congress is to be held from 22^nd-26^th March 2000 at the Manly Pacific Hotel in Sydney.

We, as hosts, are working very hard to arrange key-note speakers and facilities to make this a very memorable Congress. Members may remember the outstandingly successful ICOI Congress held in Sydney about 7 years ago, and participants from throughout the world are expected are expected for this Congress. Mark your diaries and plan to attend.

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Perhaps you have forgotten to forward your subscriptions for the current membership year. We still would like to enjoy your membership, however if the subscription has not been forwarded we won't be able to continue forwarding newsletters and details of ASID activities. If there is a renewal notice attached to this notice you are probably unfinancial in which case a cheque for $65 will restore you to silver membership status .If you are unsure of your financial status please contact the secretary for confirmation.

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Now that the efficacy of implant procedures has been well proven and documented, there is an increasing demand to provide implants to a much wider patient cross-section, which may include patients who are compromised in terms of adequate bone volume.

More and more practitioners are looking at the various means by which ridge augmentation may be achieved.

For some time we have had reports of success with procedures such as sinus lifts, ileac crest and other autologous grafts, freeze-dried demineralized bone grafts, synthetic bone grafts, osteotomes for ridge expansion, and guided tissue regeneration. More recent arrivals of newer generation implants, such as the Endopore implants, also show some promise to provide implants with much less bone height required than the earlier generation of implants.

As can be expected from such a great range of alternatives, a considerable degree of confusion is evident as to which method is appropriate and effective. More recently there have been reports from a few speakers denouncing the long-term success of a number of procedures. With this in mind the editor did a brief review of the literature on augmentation procedures and it appears that the results reported show that most of the procedures have an excellent overall success if properly performed and there is very little literature which shows contrary to this.

We will endeavour to provide up to date information and speakers so that our members can continue to remain at the forefront of the technology.

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The web site has a new address and members are requested to take note:

Many thanks are extended to Dr Ken Lipworth for his efforts in setting up the site. Members are encouraged to visit the site, which also has some very useful links to other associated sites. Feedback and suggestions from members are always welcome.

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