Innovation Ambassador Dr. Anthony Chellappah about his experience with W&H equipment for oral surgery

Sydney’s newly built Northern Beaches Hospital is fortunate to have the services of highly skilled Specialist Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, Dr Anthony Chellappah.

Dr Chellappah has recently established a stylish private practice within the hospital where he performs a range of oral surgery procedures, in addition working as a trauma surgeon in the hospital’s main operating theatres.

Since starting work at the new hospital, Dr Chellappah has equipped his practice with the latest specialized W&H surgical motors to perform implants and major oral surgeries, including bimaxillary osteotomies (simultaneous upper and lower jaw surgery to align severe malocclusions and other defects).

As an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Dr Chellappah uses W&H equipment daily and because of his vast depth of experience with the company’s products throughout his career has also become a W&H Innovation Ambassador.

He plans to broaden his services in the coming year to also provide live training in a hospital setting to dental professionals to help dentists perform implants and wisdom teeth extractions safely – and to help them recognize when it is best to refer difficult cases onto oral surgeons.

Dr Chellappah has used a range of surgical equipment but when it came to choosing equipment for his own practice, said he was very comfortable with his choice of W&H implant surgical motors, handpieces, and sterilization equipment.

He uses W&H’s award-winning ‘Implantmed’ surgical motors and the newly released ‘Piezomed’ add on module to enable him to perform piezo surgery using the same Implantmed drive unit and controller.
Dr Chellappah said the Piezomed module (which attaches to the side of the Implantmed drive unit), allows surgery to be performed with a great deal of precision and minimal trauma. This also greatly speeds healing time.

“The Implantmed is the most-used device in my practice. It’s very rare in the wisdom tooth cases that come to me, to use extraction forceps alone. Most require tooth sectioning and/or some extent of bone removal,” he said.

“The reason I like the Implantmed is that it is like a ‘hot knife through butter’, but at the same time it has a tactile feel. Using the Implantmed you can feel the difference between tooth and bone."

“By comparison, some other types of surgical equipment can demolish everything in their path and it’s hard to know what you are doing because its lacks the tactile feel of the Implantmed ,” he said.

“When performing sinus lifts, bone graft harvesting and osteotomies, the Piezomed is ideal. All cuts can be done with absolute precision and the piezo surgical saw will not cut through nerves and soft tissues."

“In the past with sagittal reciprocating saws there was always the possibility of permanent nerve injury. The Piezomed is so smooth when cutting through bone and its benefits are so much greater than conventional surgical saws.

“When you combine the Piezomed with good planning, you reduce the time taken to do the surgery, lessen trauma to the patient, get better results and much faster healing time.”

For more information on the Implantmed and new Piezomed module, or any W&H products get in touch with our team 1300 613 988