Cortical DrillCrown Down Cortical DrillSolid tungsten carbide cortical drills, matched per implant diameter, used first to clear the crestal plate before the trabecular pass begins.
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Two implant sites at lower right #45 and #47, prepared live with two tungsten carbide drills. No ascending drill sequence, no drill swaps between diameters.
Case performed by Dr. Ernesto Antonio Pichardo Tejada, DDS (Dominican Republic) — 18+ months of daily clinical use with the Crown Down kit.
Cortical drill first
The matched-diameter drill clears the dense crestal cortex in seconds.
One drill to depth
The trabecular drill completes the site — no ascending sequence.
Dense D1 bone
The hardest bone type most clinicians will ever prepare.
Under 2 minutes
Both premolar sites prepared in the time one steel sequence takes.
On this page
Drill #1 of the 2-drill protocol
A cortical drill is the crestal bone drill that prepares the dense outer layer of bone before a dental implant is placed. Cortical drills are often called countersinks, but the terminology is borrowed from woodworking. In wood and metal, a countersink creates space for the wide head of a flat-head screw so the screw sits flush. Dental implants are not flat-head screws. They don’t require a wide head to be sunk into the bone, which is why the Crown Down cortical drill is positioned as an implant countersink alternative, not a countersink.
In traditional implant protocols, the cortical drill is used mainly in dense bone, almost always as the final step in the drilling sequence. Its job is to relieve excessive compression in the crestal cortical bone after the rest of the osteotomy is already prepared.
The Crown Down kit treats this dense bone drill as drill #1. The cortical bone is the hardest, densest, and most resistant zone of the osteotomy. Clear it first and the trabecular pass runs into a softer, lower-friction environment, with clean tactile feedback at the cortical-to-trabecular transition.
Traditional protocol
Cortical drill = last
Used as a countersink at the end to relieve compression.
Crown Down protocol
Cortical drill = first
Drill #1, matched to the implant diameter.
A traditional countersink reduces the crestal cortical bone after the osteotomy. The Crown Down cortical drill is a full-depth tungsten carbide drill used as drill #1, before the trabecular pass.
Drill-type disambiguation
The cortical drill is one of four drill types that get used (and often confused) in implant osteotomy. Each does a different job, enters the sequence at a different point, and is sized differently. Here is how the cortical drill differs from the three it’s most often mistaken for.
| Drill type | What it does | When it’s used | Diameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cortical drill | Clears the dense crestal cortical layer | First (drill #1) in the Crown Down protocol | Matched to the implant diameter |
| Pilot drill | Marks entry point and sets initial trajectory | First in a conventional steel sequence | Narrowest in the kit (~2.0–2.2 mm) |
| Twist drill | Progressively widens the osteotomy body | Middle of a conventional 5–8 drill sequence | Sequential, increasing diameters |
| Countersink | Reduces crestal bone for a wide implant collar | Last in a conventional sequence, dense bone only | One general-purpose size, wider than most implants |
The cortical drill exists because cortical bone behaves nothing like the trabecular bone beneath it. For the underlying tissue biomechanics — elasticity, rigidity, and vascularization — see cortical vs. trabecular bone.
Choose what you’d improve first. Each answer shows the engineering, what changes clinically, and what it means for your practice.
Solid Tungsten Carbide
Every drill is solid tungsten carbide, engineered to hold its cutting edge through normal clinical use. Clinicians report case-after-case cutting performance well beyond conventional steel drill life.
2-Drill Protocol
One drill opens the cortical plate, one completes the trabecular osteotomy. Two drills per site instead of five to eight means less to set up, track, and sterilize.
Traditional sequence
2.02.53.03.54.04.55–8 drills
Crown Down
CorticalTrabecular2 drills
Lower Heat
Bone cells are damaged by heat you never see. The material, the low-speed protocol, and the 2-drill sequence are each designed to keep the osteotomy cooler.
Guided & Freehand
The same drills run guided cases (with 3D stoppers) and freehand cases, with universal compatibility across major implant systems. No second kit to buy or maintain.
You’ve seen what Crown Down changes
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A free 15-minute clinical walkthrough with Dr. Zvi Fudim, DDS: the drills, the 2-drill sequence, and which configuration fits your surgical workflow.
The 2-drill chart
The Crown Down drilling chart always pairs two drills per implant diameter. Drill #1 is the cortical drill, used first to clear the crestal cortical plate. Drill #2 is the trabecular drill, used second to prepare the cancellous bone underneath.
Drill #1 (cortical) clears the crestal plate. Drill #2 (trabecular) prepares the cancellous bone with the blood supply intact.
Matched to the implant
Every implant diameter has its own cortical drill. Cortical preparation is sized to the implant being placed, not to a single general-purpose countersink.
Tactile transition
Cortical bone thickness varies from patient to patient and site to site. When drill #1 punches through the cortex, the clinician feels the transition into softer trabecular bone, instead of relying on a fixed depth assumption.
Predictable insertion
Cortical resistance is removed before the implant body engages. Insertion torque becomes a function of the trabecular pass alone, which is the part of the osteotomy the clinician can actually titrate.
Camlog Crown Down Drilling Chart
| Implant Ø (mm) | 3.3 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 6.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drill #1 | #35 | #40 | #45 | #50 | #60 |
| Drill #2 | #20 | #20 | #35 | #40 | #50 |
Crown Down drilling chart for Camlog implants. Full system-specific charts live on the compatibility page.
Inside the kit
Drill #20
Trabecular drill (drill #2)
Used after the cortical pass to prepare the cancellous bone with controlled undersizing for primary stability.
Drill #40
Cortical drill (drill #1)
Drill #1 for medium-diameter implants. Clears the crestal cortical plate before the trabecular drill engages.
Drill #55
Cortical drill (drill #1)
Drill #1 for wide-diameter implants. Same cortical-first role as the #40, scaled to the larger implant body.
Clinical pitfalls
Most cortical drill failures aren’t about the drill itself. They’re about the protocol around it. Four patterns come up repeatedly in continuing-education case reviews of dense-bone and posterior-maxilla implant osteotomies.
Most implant systems ship a single one-size-fits-all countersink that’s wider than nearly every implant diameter. Used at the end of the sequence, that generic implant countersink over-relieves the cortical bone, removing the crestal contact that drives initial primary stability. A cortical drill matched per implant diameter sizes the cortical preparation to the actual fixture, not to the largest implant in the catalog.
A cortical drill is designed to clear the dense crestal layer, typically the first 1 to 3 mm of bone. Drilling past that with a cortical drill turns it into a wider-than-needed twist drill in the trabecular zone, wastes the dimensional control of the trabecular pass, and removes more bone than needed. The Crown Down crestal bone drill is calibrated so the tactile transition into trabecular bone is unmistakable; the clinician stops the moment the resistance drops.
In soft posterior maxilla bone, the crestal cortex is thin and the dense-bone scenario a cortical drill solves doesn’t really apply. In those sites, adding a cortical drill is an unnecessary step that can actually undermine primary stability by widening a cortex that wasn’t restrictive in the first place. The Crown Down 2-drill protocol allows the clinician to skip drill #1 in thin cortex and go straight to the trabecular drill, which is one reason the kit isn’t a rigid drilling sequence.
Two ways to manage crestal compression: cortical drilling (widening the crestal opening) and cortical tapping (cutting a thread into the cortex so the implant screws into pre-formed threads). Both improve primary stability in dense bone. A cortical drill is faster, requires no separate instrument change, and gives clearer tactile feedback, which is why the Crown Down protocol uses a matched dense bone drill instead of a cortical tap.
A flexible protocol, not a rigid drilling sequence.
The cortical drill is drill #1 of the Crown Down 2-drill protocol, but it isn’t mandatory at every site. The clinician decides when the crestal cortex calls for a dedicated drill and when to go straight to the trabecular pass.
Crown Down is built for dentists who want a smarter way to prepare implant osteotomies, not a slightly-different version of the same drill kit.
Clinicians placing freehand implants who want better tactile feedback and a faster, simpler osteotomy.
Practices running fully or partially guided cases who need a drill kit that pairs cleanly with stoppers and surgical guides.
Teams done with replacing dull steel drills, juggling reorder cycles, and tracking sterilization counts.
Dentists working across multiple implant systems who want a single drilling kit that doesn't lock them into one brand.
Practices ready to simplify osteotomy preparation from a long sequence to two tungsten carbide drills per site.
Dentists who want to collect a larger volume of clean autogenous bone chips during osteotomy preparation, without adding a separate harvesting procedure.
The System
The Crown Down system includes 15 mm and 20 mm surgical kits, individual tungsten carbide drills from Ø 2.75 mm to Ø 6.0 mm, and 3D stoppers for guided osteotomy preparation. One purchase covers your full case mix, with no recurring replacement budget. See what’s inside the implant surgical kit.
CD-KIT-L015
2-drill tungsten carbide kit with 15 mm drills.
CD-KIT-L020
2-drill tungsten carbide kit with 20 mm drills.
#20 – #60
Solid tungsten carbide, Ø 2.75 to Ø 6.0 mm. Sold individually for misplaced or lost drills.
Guided surgery
Three-dimensional drill control for guided osteotomy preparation.
Why design matters
The cortical drill operates in the densest, most thermally loaded zone of the osteotomy. That makes it one of the most mechanically vulnerable instruments in the sequence. It has to resist wear, hold its cutting edge, and pull heat away from the crestal plate. If the drill loses sharpness or traps heat, the risk of friction and thermal damage rises.
Hardness
~2,600 HV
Solid tungsten carbide is roughly 13× harder than the ~200 HV stainless steel used in conventional cortical drills. The cutting edge holds its geometry across unlimited clinical cycles.
Heat conductivity
110 W/m·K
About 6× the thermal conductivity of stainless steel. The drill pulls heat away from the cortex instead of trapping it in bone.
Matched diameter
1 per implant
One cortical drill per implant diameter, not a single general-purpose countersink. Cortical preparation is sized to the implant being placed.
Autoclavable
Unlimited
Standard autoclave cycles have no measurable effect on tungsten carbide drill performance. No replacement cycle, no recurring consumable cost.
For the full carbide-vs-steel breakdown, see carbide vs. steel implant drills. For the kit this drill ships in, see the surgical implant kit, the guided implant drill kit, or the transactional implant drill kit page. For the full drill sequence in context, see the broader dental implant drills reference.
Forget the long progressive drill sequences you knew from steel kits: 4 to 8 drills per site, dull edges over repeated uses, elevated heat during osteotomy preparation, and brand lock-in.
Problem
Steel’s lower thermal conductivity (around 18 W/m·K) can trap heat in the osteotomy during preparation. Learn about implant drilling heat.
Problem
Steel drills lose their cutting edge with repeated use, requiring regular replacement sets and ongoing supply cost for the practice.
Problem
Standard protocols require 4 to 8 sequential drill changes. Each swap adds chair time, complexity, and room for error.
Crown Down replaces your entire drill sequence with 2 solid tungsten carbide implant drills per site, designed for guided and freehand surgery, universal implant compatibility, and cutting performance that holds case after case under normal clinical use.
6x
Up to 6x less heat in internal thermal testing under controlled conditions. Learn about implant drilling heat.
2
Two drills per site instead of four to eight. Fewer instrument changes, shorter procedures, and a simpler workflow.
0
Guaranteed against loss of cutting performance under normal clinical use — no scheduled replacement cycle, no per-case drill budget.
Side-by-side comparison based on published material properties and clinical data.
| Feature |  Crown Down | Stainless Steel Kits |
|---|---|---|
| Drills per osteotomy | 2 | 5 to 8 |
| Heat generation | Up to 6x less in internal thermal testing | High |
| Cutting efficiency | Maintains edge under normal use | Slows quickly |
| Drill wear | Holds cutting edge case after case | Wears after few cases |
| Replacement cost | Eliminates routine replacement | Ongoing expense |
| Surgery modes | Guided and freehand | Varies by kit |
| Implant system compatibility | Universal | Brand-locked |
| Long-term cost | One-time purchase | Ongoing expense |
Stop spending $1,000 to $3,000 every year replacing dull steel drills.
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One-time investment • No replacement cycle • Universal compatibility
The 2-drill tungsten carbide protocol is backed by internal material testing, thermal measurement, and ongoing clinical use across implant systems.
1,000 osteotomy cycles each in bovine rib, pig rib, and bovine tibia at 22°C. No visible wear damage observed across all three internal tests.
Independent studies on implant drill material, heat, and repeated-use degradation: Koo 2015, Mendes 2014, Harris & Kohles 2001, Yalcin 2025.
Documented 5-year follow-up of a Neodent GM implant placed with the Crown Down protocol in a complex medically-compromised patient.
Disclosure: Internal testing was performed on benchtop bone substrates under controlled drilling conditions and is intended for comparative reference. Clinical outcomes depend on operator technique, drilling parameters, and case-specific anatomy. Clinicians should follow their training and clinical judgment when selecting drilling protocols.
Clinician Reviews
Implant clinicians on durability, cost, and heat control with the Crown Down system. Read the full set of 6 reviews on each product page.
“Two years in and I haven't replaced a single drill.”
“I switched to Crown Down two years ago and haven't replaced a single drill. My implant site prep is noticeably faster and I have much better tactile feedback through the bone.”
Dr. Henri Diederich
Luxembourg
“18 months of daily use and the drills still cut like new.”
“I was skeptical at first, but after 18 months of daily use the drills still cut like new. The heat reduction is real, and my patients report less post-op discomfort.”
Dr. Ernesto Antonio Pichardo Tejada
Dominican Republic
“That line item is simply gone now.”
“What sold me was the economics. I used to budget for replacing dull drills every quarter, and that line item is simply gone now. The carbide holds its edge case after case, and the consistency that gives me during osteotomy prep is worth as much as the savings.”
Dr. Philippe Bertrand
Montreal, Canada
Switching osteotomy protocols is a real decision, and you don’t have to retire your current tray to make it: most surgeons start by running Crown Down alongside their existing kit. These are the guarantees that stand behind the purchase.
Guaranteed against loss of cutting performance under normal clinical use. No scheduled replacement cycle.
Unopened kits in original sterile packaging can be returned within 30 days. Defective units are always covered.
Cleared as a Class II surgical instrument and CE marked for the EEA. Regulatory documentation ships with every order.
$100 USD flat-rate shipping to every country we deliver to, with secure Stripe checkout and tax handled at checkout.
Read the full return & refund policy. Questions about your specific case? A 15-minute call is the fastest answer.
Founded by Dr. Zvi Fudim, Crown Down develops surgical drilling systems that address the core challenges dentists face with implant integration. Our technology draws on decades of clinical practice and materials science to deliver instruments that are more durable, thermally efficient, and cost-effective than conventional stainless steel alternatives.
Founder & CEO
Implant dentist and inventor of the Crown Down system, with decades of clinical and materials science experience.
Co-Founder
Leads operations, manufacturing, and product delivery.
CTO
Leads engineering, product development, and the Crown Down technology platform.
Crown Down is a universal implant drilling kit compatible with Nobel Biocare, Straumann, Zimmer Biomet, MIS, BioHorizons, Osstem, and other major implant systems.
See the difference for yourself
Join the clinicians who’ve eliminated routine drill replacement and simplified their osteotomy workflow.
The questions clinicians ask most before adopting the Crown Down cortical-first protocol.
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Everything on this site in one printable reference — read it between patients, share it with your associates.
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