Dr Ned Restom is a founder of Australasian Implant Academy (AIA), and the Australian Dental & Implant Group (ADIG) and is a Practice Principal of a number of highly successful dental practices on the Central Coast region and beyond. Ned is accredited by Healthe care to perform implant reconstructive surgery under general anaesthetics. He is also a candidate to become one of the first few Australians to become a diplomate of the American Board of Oral Implantology (ABOI).

Dr Ned Restom and his fellow dental partners are shaking up the dental arena in Australia making it the global stage delivering premium implantology courses through the Australasian Implant Academy, the ONLY Implant Academy in Australia that provides LIVE patient surgery completed under general anaesthetics for students.

Below we gain insights from the highly driven entrepreneur and find out more about the Aussie designed and delivered implant courses that are accelerating Australian and international dentists’ careers and enhancing their businesses.

Q & A with Dr Ned Restom Founder of Australasian Implant Academy (AIA)

Why did you start up AIA?

We wanted to give our fellow practitioners the opportunity to gain a world class implant education in Australia. We are lucky enough to have some incredible talent right here who are part of the AIA faculty designing and delivering a practical, hands on and incredibly relevant platform for students to accelerate their implant learning.

Our lecturers truly have their finger on the pulse, working in their own dental practices, placing implants daily and are continually undergoing significant professional development themselves. These guys are the masters in their field and are willing and able to share their invaluable knowledge and experience with our students, now that’s priceless!

We also wanted to provide an active network for our students where they can come together and discuss cases and feel highly supported along their implant education journey.

How did the dental industry and AIA survive during lockdown?

As part of the AIA curriculum students are granted exclusive access to our online discussion forums and have direct access to our panel of mentors.

The first program for the year was our Fellowship program hosted in May. Unfortunately, we were all forced into lockdown in June, which meant our course line-up for the remainder of 2021 was on hold. The new landscape created uncertainty for the immediate future, yet, we knew we had to embrace this ‘new norm’ and quickly adapt and discover a new way to maintain engagement with our student community, with the known challenging times ahead.

For this reason, the AIA Faculty decided to host interactive LIVE, online case discussion sessions for students where they can submit patient cases which can be discussed by the group. Then after a couple of sessions, we knew we had a pretty good formula, so we thought, “why not open this up to the broader dental community?” whom we know will significantly benefit as well from these sessions.  We’ve hosted a number of online sessions this year and have already cultivated a nice following.

What types of courses does AIA provide for dentists?

The AIA provides Fellowship Programs starting from Basic to Intermediate, Advanced Bone Grafting and Full-Arch Immediate loading.

Students can enrol in all three modules and complete a Full Fellowship or take each module individually. The Fellowship programs are theory-based with a hands-on component where clinicians work with models.

The Fellowship programs are complemented by the AIA LIVE Patient surgery components where clinicians can gain practical experience. Under supervision from our mentors and lecturers, each clinician will place their implants and assist their partner.  Clinicians can bring their patients, or if this is too challenging logistically, the AIA will provide the patients.  All patients are pre-screened by our instructors before the course and treatment planning is conducted before surgery.

The AIA LIVE Surgery programs are like no other in Australia and NZ. It is the only program in collaboration with the local Private hospital to also train clinicians under General Anaesthetics.

Who are the courses suitable for?

Our program steers novice clinicians from entry-level basics to advanced mastery. It takes them on a comprehensive journey toward the complex treatment planning of advanced grafting and Full Arch immediate loading techniques. The AIA teaches a fully digital workflow to recreate aesthetic and functional outcomes, complementing optimal oral rehabilitation.

Who are the AIA lecturer’s and what do they bring to the table?

We are delighted to have a number of highly experienced and respected members on our faculty who regularly present on a local and global stage.

As the AIA Head Lecturer, Dr Dean Licenblats experience and expertise spans over a decade. He is always up to date on the latest global techniques and evolving technology. In addition, he holds a teaching appointment at Goethe, responsible for tutoring graduate students in Australia and New Zealand. Dr. Dean Licenblats Martin Place practice in CBD, Sydney is one of a few dental surgeries awarded ‘Leading Implant Centres of the World’ in Australia and Dr Dean is the first Australian diplomat for the American Board of Oral Implantology (ABOI).

Other members of the faculty include Co-Founder, Dr David Bassal, Dr Tom Giblin, Dr James Weallens, Dr Nour Tarraf and Dr Nauvneel Kashyap who bring a mountain of knowledge and expertise and are generous in sharing this with our students.

Why is AIA different to other academies?

AIA is the ONLY Implant Academy in Australia that provides LIVE patient surgery completed under general anaesthetics for students.

The AIA aims to support and mentor the clinician every step of the way from their first treatment plan to the final prosthesis insert.

Clinicians can feel 100% supported when they return to their practices to develop complex treatment planning protocols and confidently place implants for their patients. Once a clinician completes any one of our courses, they are given exclusive access to our members-only Facebook group, where Dr Dean Licenblat and Dr Ned Restom post weekly tips and techniques for a wide range of patient cases/treatments.

AIA is also the only course in Australia to be endorsed by the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (ICOI). There are few international courses that are endorsed, and we are honoured to be on this list!

Our aim is to foster an ongoing and close community of practitioners to feel supported throughout their implant journey and to be able to collaborate with their peers as well as specialists in the field.

What’s on the horizon for AIA in the immediate and long-term future?

AIA is working closely with similar programs in the United States to produce a global curriculum guided by one of the top academics and endorsed by one of the most renowned universities. Stay tuned!