What is Ihde Dental? The company, its products and the foundation

The Ihde name sits on three separate things: a clinician (Prof. Dr. Stefan Ihde), a manufacturer (Dr. Ihde Dental AG) and the treatment approach this circle champions. Someone who types 'ihde dental' into a search box is usually curious about the third, but the first two are what come up first. The subject here is the manufacturer. We explain the method itself in our guide 'What is an Ihde implant?', and how it differs from a conventional implant in a separate comparison.

The history is based on the biography Stefan Ihde publishes on his own website. According to that text, the company was founded in 1954 by his father, Klaus Ihde, as a small family business selling dental materials and consumables. After his father's death in 1989, Stefan Ihde took over the company and steered it towards developing, researching and manufacturing implants and consumables. The same text says the group has companies in Switzerland, Germany, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. These are the founder's own statements; we have not compared them with an independent company register entry.

According to the company's own website, its main business today is developing, manufacturing and selling dental implants. It says it buys in consumables from suppliers but makes the implants itself, and that it has been manufacturing in Gommiswald for more than 30 years. It states that the material it uses is Ti6Al4V ELI, the high-purity titanium alloy known as 'Grade 5'. It says it uses no chemical treatment on the surfaces that go into the bone, and that on products needing a rough surface, the surface is roughened with a laser.

The catalogue is split into two families, and this is a detail most patients do not know. The one-piece group includes KOS, KOS ROOT, BCS, ZSI and TPG uno. The two-piece group includes Hexacone, TPG, S-System, Bone Level Plus and Xign; these are designs in which the body and the top part are separate, close to conventional implantology. In other words, an implant coming from this company does not mean the treatment was carried out with the corticobasal approach. That is why it makes sense to ask the clinic which product will be used.

The company's own product descriptions also set some clear limits. For KOS, it says the compression screw design allows the prosthesis to be fitted within three days at the latest, given correct surgery and good bone quality. For BCS, it states that the implant can be placed straight into an extraction socket if there is enough basal support, that the prosthesis must be fitted before day 3, and that use is restricted to authorised practitioners. For TPG uno and TPG, it says plainly that they are not suitable for single-tooth treatment. ZSI, according to the manufacturer, is an implant placed from the side of the upper jaw and anchored in the cheekbone area, and it is used only by experienced clinicians with a good knowledge of the anatomy.

Brand names are a separate source of confusion. According to strategic-implant.com, the name Strategic Implant® is a protected term for the implants of Simpladent GmbH in Switzerland. Corticobasal®, meanwhile, is the product group name that Dr. Ihde Dental uses with a registered trademark symbol on its own website. Simpladent's own website says that Stefan Ihde and his team treat patients at the Simpladent GmbH clinic, and that only Swiss-made implants of the Strategic Implant® and BECES® brands are used there. In short, there is more than one company and more than one brand, but all of them sit around the same person.

Disc implants placed from the side (BOI) do not appear in the current catalogue. According to implantate.com, a patient portal in Germany, the registered BOI trademark belongs to Biomed Est., and disc implants have been dropped from the manufacturer's product catalogue; the portal writes that the reason can only be guessed at. No disc-design implant is listed on the company's current product page either. For someone who had disc implants fitted years ago, this is a reason to raise the questions of follow-up and spare parts early.

On the training side there is the International Implant Foundation (IF). The foundation is based in Munich and describes itself as a non-profit, scientifically oriented foundation under private law. The company's training page refers to the foundation as 'our partner'. According to the foundation's own page, Stefan Ihde headed its implant faculty from 2006 to 2018 and has been chairman of its board since 2025. Since 2006 the foundation has published a journal called CMF Implant Directions and issues consensus documents; the 2019 consensus indexed on PubMed is also a text Ihde signed on the foundation's behalf.

This picture does not disprove anything on its own, but there is one fact you should know as you read: the manufacturer, the foundation that provides the training, the journal and the consensus text all come from the same circle. Assessments from outside are more cautious. The disc implant (BOI) page of implantate.com, a patient portal in Germany, says that the scientific professional bodies in Germany do not recommend these implant forms and that there is no evidence-based information on the subject; the page's author is a dentist who is a member of the DGI and the DGZMK. When weighing up a study, checking whether its authors have links to the foundation or the manufacturer is therefore the first step.

Knowing the manufacturer genuinely helps with some questions and tells you nothing about others. Keeping the two apart protects you from misplaced confidence and from needless suspicion.

The sequence below is a way of turning the phrase 'Ihde implant' in a quote into concrete information. Each question is the kind a good clinic will answer without batting an eyelid.

1. 1

   Ask for the name of the product

   Is it KOS, BCS, TPG uno, ZSI or one of the two-piece systems? The product name determines which design, and which conditions of use, apply.

2. 2

   One piece or two

   A one-piece design has no connecting screw, but the angle cannot be corrected later by changing the top part. With a two-piece design it is the other way round. This answer shows which risk you are taking on.

3. 3

   Ask where the anchorage will come from

   According to the foundation's 2019 consensus, in this approach the implant is anchored in the second or third cortical layer. The CBCT scan can be used to show which layer is targeted for each implant.

4. 4

   Ask about the dentist's training

   The company states that BCS may only be used by authorised practitioners. Seeing the certificate is a start; ask as well how many full-mouth cases are treated each year.

5. 5

   Ask for the record

   The product name, diameter, length and placement area of each implant should be given to you in writing. When you go to another dentist, this is the most valuable information you will have.

6. 6

   Agree who will handle follow-up

   Before treatment, make clear where check-ups will take place, who to contact if a problem arises and where parts will be sourced from.

This company is not the only option for many missing teeth or a full mouth. These are the main routes compared when making a decision.

A large share of the information sources in this field belong to the manufacturer or to organisations close to it. The points below are useful cautions when weighing up what you read.

Information about the company is most valuable after treatment, when something needs changing or repairing.

1. The day the teeth are fitted

   When the final bridge is fitted, the product name, diameter and length of each implant should be given to you in writing. Think of this record as a document handed over together with the bridge.

2. The first check-ups

   The bite is measured again and small adjustments are made if needed. At this stage the dentist can compare the product details in the record with the X-ray.

3. Regular check-ups

   The gum around the implants and the cleanliness of the bridge are monitored. Whatever the product, the health of the surrounding tissue depends on regular check-ups.

4. When you change dentist or city

   If the new dentist knows the system, they start from the record. If they do not, the record is the quickest way to refer you to the right specialist.

We do not give figures; an accurate figure comes once the CBCT scan has been seen. The product choice takes up a smaller share of the total than people think. These are the items that decide it:

Which product family is used

One-piece and two-piece systems differ both in the number of parts and in what they need for the bridgework. When comparing quotes, put products of the same type side by side.

Number of implants

In corticobasal plans the number is usually kept higher to share the load. The number is set by the condition of the bone, not by the patient's preference.

Bridgework and laboratory work

The final fixed teeth fitted on day three, with their material and workmanship, are the largest part of the total in most plans.

Whether bone grafting is needed

When the anchorage can be taken from the deep cortical layer, bone grafting does not come into it in most cases; this item creates the biggest difference between the two routes.