Can dental implants be affordable? My next patient wanted to get rid of his dentures and have a fixed set of crowns or a full arch roundhouse bridge on dental implants. He brought his treatment plan for 8 dental implants and a set of 12 porcelain crowns.....total cost a bit north of $28,000. With mini dental implants we could reduce that cost and still have a well engineered bridge.
He had a nice ridge of bone to work with. It would not need any pre surgery to accommodate dental implants. With some planning with Jon Younce CDT at First Impressions Dental Lab a logical progression treatment plan was formulated that was restorative driven.
His pan x-ray also showed good bone with the sinus cavity totally dropped down where the back teeth were in the upper jaw. There was also a retained set of root tips that would need to be removed on the upper right.
Using his upper denture as a guide I made holes in the center of each back tooth and the lingual of the front teeth to ensure the mini dental implants would line up correctly for the final roundhouse full arch bridge.
10 ACE Surgical Mini Prep 2.3mm implants were placed in the upper arch. They were placed as parallel as possible to allow for proper draw of the final roundhouse full arch bridge.
His denture was soft lined to fit over the ACE Surgical Mini Dental Implants.
A regular crown and bridge impression was taken of the 10 ACE Surgical Mini Dental Implants. No additional impression copings or lab analogs were used. With mini dental implants we can create a more efficient and cost effective solution for patients by reducing parts and pieces that are normally required with traditional dental implants.
A standard crown and bridge model was poured in Pol-u-rock by the lab and a set of trial resin crowns were made to let the patient 'test drive' the crowns.
Lab fabricated resin temporary crowns ready to try in and have the patient give us his feedback on esthetics, function, comfort and color.
It was decided after a few days that the temporary crowns were too long. The patient also had Bell's Palsy and we decided to try and correct the slant. This photograph shows one side of the temporary crowns shortened to the new lenght for the lab to see our corrections. I shapedthe other side and let the patient go home to 'test drive' them again for final approval.
Reshaped temps and final photos for the lab to duplicate the arcylic temps in porcelain for the full arch bridge
Final porcelain bridge back from the lab. It is in three sections.
Final porcelain bridge cemented over 10 ACE Surgical Mini Prep Mini Dental Implants.
Full smile with the bridge in place.
Final pan x-ray with the 10 Ace Surgical Mini Dental Implants with the 12 units of bridge work cemented over them. Our plan is to do a lower mini dental implant overdenture that will be converted to a bridge over time as $$ can be invested.
Paresh B Patel Mini Dental Implants Charlotte Hickory Lenoir NC
Comments