Dr. Khaled Zoud & Dr. Fadi Yassmin - ZAGA Cadaver Course Sydney

Episode summary

In this ZAGA Centers Podcast episode, host David Pastorino speaks with Dr. Khaled Zoud, a Sydney oral and maxillofacial surgeon, and Dr. Fadi Yassmin, a Sydney cosmetic and restorative dentist, about the first-ever ZAGA course held in Australia, running March 31 to April 3 in Sydney. The four-day course teaches remote anchorage for full-arch rehabilitation through theory, 3D-model hands-on sessions, and cadaver dissection. Three faculty divide the content: Dr. Carlos Aparicio covers zygomatic implants and the ZAGA concept, Dr. Zoud covers pterygoid implants, and Dr. Yassmin covers digital prosthesis, aesthetics, and smile design. Both guests emphasize a prosthetically driven, digitally planned workflow in which the restorative dentist is present during surgery. They argue pterygoid implants can often avoid a zygomatic implant, treating the zygoma as a last resort, and note a recent surge in immediate-load prosthetic materials.

Key takeaways

The Sydney ZAGA course, running March 31 to April 3, is the first ZAGA course ever organized in Australia and focuses on remote anchorage, specifically zygomatic and pterygoid implants plus prosthesis.
The course is taught by three faculty: Dr. Carlos Aparicio (zygomatic implants and the ZAGA concept), Dr. Khaled Zoud (pterygoid implants), and Dr. Fadi Yassmin (digital prosthesis, aesthetics, and smile design), and combines theory, 3D-model hands-on work, and cadaver dissection.
Dr. Khaled Zoud's single most important tip for placing pterygoid implants is to always drill medially and never go lateral, because going lateral is where the danger lies.
A pterygoid implant can often save a zygomatic implant for another day, and Dr. Zoud advises clinicians to consider the pterygoid area before jumping to a zygomatic implant.
Dr. Fadi Yassmin and Dr. Zoud reported that as they used more remote anchorage and pterygoid implants, they significantly reduced their number of zygoma cases; per Dr. Aparicio, the zygoma is the last bastion or last resort.
Modern full-arch treatment is prosthetically driven: smile design and diagnostics are completed before surgery to produce a facially driven design and surgical template, and the restorative dentist must be present in theatre with the surgeon.
Immediate prosthetics have undergone a quantum leap in the past 12 to 18 months, moving beyond titanium-bar acrylic and zirconia to hard printed materials and reinforced printed polymers chosen according to each case's anchorage and stability.

What you'll learn

The ZAGA cadaver course format in Sydney
Hands-on pterygoid implant module
Training on cryopreserved cadaver specimens
Digital prosthetic workflow for full-arch
Combining pterygoid and zygomatic anchorage

About the guests

Dr. Khaled Zoud

Dr. Khaled Zoud is a specialist oral and maxillofacial surgeon based in Sydney, Australia, with over a decade of zygomatic implant experience. He earned a Bachelor of Dental Surgery with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney (1994) and a Bachelor of Medicine with Honours from the University of Newcastle (2002), and obtained his Specialist Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (2006). He is the certified ZAGA surgeon at ZAGA Center Sydney and has been a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney for over two decades.

ZAGA profile · LinkedIn · fysmile.com.au

Dr. Fadi Yassmin

Dr. Fadi Yassmin is a Sydney-based cosmetic, restorative, and implant dentist known for complex full-arch implant rehabilitation and porcelain veneers. He holds a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of Sydney (1993) and an MSc in Aesthetic Dentistry from King's College London (2015), and completed gIDE Master Clinician implant training (UCLA, 2010). He is the founder of FY Smile, Australia's first certified ZAGA Center, and is a Straumann Key Opinion Leader.