“We don’t notice the moment we make the wrong decision — only the moment it comes back to teach us.” Good morning everyone, I’m here at the Olivais field in Moscavide, ready to watch the big Palmense vs Olivais derby — with Henrique playing. First day of spring, March 21st. It’s still raining a bit… but you can feel the sun is coming. It’s going to be a great day. And maybe that’s exactly it: spring doesn’t start when the weather changes — it starts when we learn. 🧠 A diffic

why do people die in the forest ? They die of shame …. The Edge, leadership and the difference between problems and solutions Some years ago I watched a film that stayed in my mind for a long time: The Edge . The story is simple but powerful. A plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness and the survivors — played by Anthony Hopkins  and Alec Baldwin  — are suddenly trapped in an immense forest with almost nothing. Cold. Hunger. Isolation. And a massive bear hunting them. Their o

“In implant surgery, biology is constant — but humans are variable.” andré chen This week brought an interesting clinical reflection. I was waiting for the local supermarket Aucham to open this morning here in Benfica neighborhood,,, when I started thinking about a case we performed this week: a sinus elevation in the region of tooth #16. The CBCT clearly showed a severely pneumatized maxillary sinus and almost no residual bone. The patient, interestingly, had no idea this wa

When Guided Surgery Meets Surgical Reality “The map is not the territory.” — Alfred Korzybski March 8th, 2026. The world woke up in a strange atmosphere. Flights cancelled. Beirut atacked and just thinking that in 2 weeks I was supposed to be there for the straumann IEXCEL launch 🚀…….. The Middle East on fire. Europe once again talking about war and nuclear weapons fr ance 🇫🇷 doubling the nuclear warheads ….. a simple spark ⚡️ and war !!! And while geopolitics shakes the p

“Great surgery does not happen when the mind is full of thoughts. It happens when training replaces thinking, and presence replaces fear.” Good morning everyone. I was at home after an exhausting week of implant surgeries, sitting on the sofa (which is a rare thing these days). I was watching the movie The Last Samurai , cool movie … very old … and what strikes me is when a particular scene immediately caught my attention: a samurai duel where one samurai explains to Tom Crui

And When We Have to Rebuild More Than Bone “Every implant carries two weights: titanium in bone and responsibility in conscience.” Lisbon. Half past midnight. The city is empty. February night. No rain — surprisingly. We are driving through silent streets to pick up Sofia from a friend’s house. There is that specific kind of fatigue —not exhaustion, but the weight of a week lived fully. A week where we pushed.Where we worked beautifully. Where we fought until the end. And tod

"Every implant we place is a biological decision. Every crown we design is a mechanical consequence of that decision. In this case, we intentionally chose a supracrestal strategy to protect marginal bone and move the microgap away from the osseous envelope. Biologically sound. Predictable. Controlled. But biology always sends the invoice to prosthetics. When we reduce prosthetic space, we increase design responsibility. And that is where many restorations fail — not because t

Posterior maxillary implant rehabilitation often requires augmentation due to ridge collapse and soft tissue deficiency. This case shows how supracrestal ceramic implant placement, combined with soft tissue repositioning, can be a minimally invasive alternative when grafting is not accepted. If the implant remains within the four bony walls, stable peri-implant tissues and functional outcomes may be achieved without extensive regeneration.

A Prosthetically Driven Concept and the Importance of Three-Dimensional Accuracy The Dream of the Supracrestal Implant Four approaches. Four levels of precision. This morning I woke up with one of those thoughts that doesn’t come from reading a paper… It comes from living implant dentistry. I slept well.Body Battery: 100% .Sleep Score: 95% . And maybe because of that… I dreamed about implants. Not an abstract dream.A surgical dream.A prosthetic dream. And the message was simp

Some days the body breaks… but the surgery still teaches. A posterior implant case where restraint, soft tissue intelligence, and keratinized mucosa repositioning replaced unnecessary reconstruction. Because true mastery is simple: you tailor the technique to the patient — not the patient to the technique.

This post describes a first clinical experience with Straumann IEXCel and TLX implants placed under static guidance using the iGUIDE system. A stepwise drilling protocol combined with dual-pin fixation provided high guide stability, predictable osteotomy preparation, and excellent primary stability. Three posterior implants were successfully inserted with minimal deviation, highlighting the importance of method, teamwork, and precise guided workflows.

From a knife-edge ridge to a stable foundation — all in one surgery. Because implantology is not about adding steps… it’s about reading the bone and choosing the right architecture.

Episode 1 — The 2 mm Twist Drill The first contact with bone defines everything: axis, depth, emergence. Master the pilot drill… and you master the entire case.

This full-arch FP1 case with Straumann’s iGuide system highlighted both the power and limitations of guided surgery in real clinical

Great Insight from Dr Margarida Carido on the #25 Immediate implant placement - a derivative technique to the "magic triangle" one

A year to Remember !!

How Education Is Changing ⭐ speak the truth “People don’t want titles anymore. They want the truth — the how, the experience, and the human behind the knowledge.” 🔥 translate research “You can show beautiful research, but if you don’t work in the clinic, you can’t translate it to the real world.” 🎯 Education-focused “Education must stop selling results and start teaching the process.” ❤️ Giving-back mindset “Build courses to teach, not to profit — and guide students to beco

Polished / Machined Collars: When Bone Doesn’t Read Textbooks There was a time when we were certain. Certain that bone does not attach to smooth surfaces. Certain that polished collars were the enemy of stability. Certain enough to transform assumptions into protocols. Looking back, I don’t think we were wrong. I think we were honest with what we knew at that time. I remember very clearly a discussion many years ago — a cold Tuesday, a very cold Tuesday — in downtown Manhatta

Detail matters “Bone, pixels, prosthetics… and a near FBI arrest. This is not a case report — it’s a manifesto. Detail matters. “ manifesto in 4 parts Yesterday, Easter day, I left the clinic at 6 in the evening. Christmas Eve. Very hollow and joyful at the same time, to be with lab tech Sofia, planning a case and sharing knowledge with her. She doesn’t know anything — in fact, neither do I, I think. I can only share my insights, which are a mixture of what others have taught

To give back! “And at the end, when he said thank you, Dr. Chen, I said thank you for helping me in the past. I tried to give my best to honor the moment.” I am in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, just finished my lecture for the dentists at the Saudi Arabia Medical Hospital in Riyadh. I’m in the VIP hall at Turkish Airlines, waiting for my flight to Istanbul, and then, from Istanbul, going home. I was just reminding myself of the case we did on Thursday. Dr. A. was one of the mo