The SAC Classification in Implant Dentistry

Three letters that continue to structure clinical decisions.

S, A, and C stand for straightforward, advanced, and complex. The SAC Classification helps clinicians systematically assess the potential difficulty, complexity, and risks of implant treatment before therapy begins.

The ITI began using the classification in its educational program in 2003. An ITI Consensus Conference attended by 28 clinicians established the basis for the book in 2007, and the English edition was published in 2009. An educational principle had become a working tool available internationally.

A shared standard

German edition of The SAC Classification in Implant Dentistry

A classification has to work in clinical practice

SAC is neither a ranking of clinicians nor merely a label attached to cases. The classification brings the clinical situation, treatment risks, and required skills together in a comprehensible framework. Surgical and prosthodontic situations are assessed separately.

The translation therefore had to get more than the individual sentences right. Risk factors, case descriptions, tables, decision pathways, and the three complexity categories had to work together terminologically. Each language edition needed to represent the same system and remain equally usable in education and clinical practice.

German dental translation in collaboration with Wilfried Preinfalk
coordination of the French, Italian, and Spanish translations
coordination of implant dentistry terminology across four language editions
linguistic consistency throughout running text, tables, clinical cases, and classification criteria

The real achievement was not the production of four books with similar content. It was making one shared clinical standard work reliably in four additional languages.

The first edition in five languages

English

The SAC Classification in Implant Dentistry
Edited by Anthony Dawson and Stephen Chen
Quintessence Publishing, 2009
172 pages, 252 illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-85097-188-7

German

Die SAC-Klassifikation in der zahnärztlichen Implantologie
Quintessenz, 2011
172 pages, 253 illustrations
ISBN: 978-3-86867-041-7

Translation: Wilfried Preinfalk/Per N. Döhler

French

La classification SAC en implantologie dentaire
Quintessence International, 2011
ISBN: 978-2-912550-80-4

Translation: Suzanne Assénat with Triacom Dental

Italian

La classificazione SAC in implantologia orale
Quintessenza Edizioni, 2011
172 pages, 253 illustrations
ISBN: 978-88-7492-156-0

Translation: Simona Ferrari with Triacom Dental

Spanish

La Clasificación SAC en Implantología Oral
Quintessence Publishing, 2011
158 pages, 252 illustrations
ISBN: 978-84-89873-46-9

Translation: Ana Vega Pérez with Triacom Dental

From a book to the SAC ecosystem

Treatment concepts, techniques, and materials continued to evolve. A completely revised second English edition was therefore published in 2022. SAC 2.0, however, was not confined to a new book. The ITI expanded the classification into a digital learning and application system.

The SAC Assessment Tool guides users through a structured assessment of the risks and complexity of an individual case.
In the ITI Academy, a learning module explains the second edition and the use of the online tool; a related assessment tests the learner’s understanding.
A comprehensive Academy webinar presents the development of SAC, risk management, and the differences between the original and revised versions.
The SAC Classification remains part of structured treatment planning in the current ITI Curriculum 2.0.
Through the ITI Case Cloud, the assessment can even become part of a digital case record.

The ITI Academy is therefore more than a new place to store an old book. It turns the classification into a learning module, an assessment, and a tool for evaluating actual cases. The printed work was not a preliminary stage that could simply be discarded afterward. It provided the structure on which these applications are built.

Explore the ITI’s SAC 2.0 resources
View the ITI Academy learning module
View the Academy webinar on SAC 2.0

What remains of the groundwork

Triacom was not involved in SAC 2.0. That is precisely what makes its development interesting: it shows that the earlier translation and coordination work was not devoted to a short-lived, stand-alone product. The first generation of books helped disseminate the classification internationally and made its terminology usable across several language communities.

Today, a much larger digital offering has grown from that groundwork. The technology is new, much of the content has been revised, and the system can do far more than the books published in 2009 and 2011. Its underlying idea, however, remains the same: complexity and risk should become visible before treatment becomes difficult.

Other book series

ITI Treatment Guide
Glossary of Oral and Maxillofacial Implants
Back to the books overview