Mini Dental Implants to Replace an Upper Partial Denture Plate
This is actually a case that was done last year. My patient came in for his 6 month cleaning about 6 months late…. Not what I like for patients to do. But he was certainly not the ideal patient and I explained that to him prior to committing my time, energy and mini implants to the case. He is a heavy smoker (around 2 packs a day). A big NO NO for traditional implants or any kind of implants in general. But I told him if I could get the mini's in without having to flap his gum away from the bone the implants would have a better chance of healing. He had seen another dentist about traditional or conventional implants but could not move forward with treatment due to the cost. A familiar story. I told him we could offer another choice…the mini implant choice. Not the same solution but a different solution that might work for him. He had a upper partial to replace his missing 6 front teeth. He had an accident over 10 years ago and had been wearing a cast metal partial that he did not like. His big complaint was the metal hooks and just the bulk of it. He did not really have a complaint on the way his front teeth looked on the partial plate.
View of upper partial denture in place. I cut the metal hooks off so he could see what things could look like once we had the final bridge over his mini dental implants.
6 Mini Dental Implants in place in the upper jaw…day of placement. Note the lack of bleeding. No flap had to be made to insert the mini implants into the gum and bone on the upper.
Upper Partial Denture modified to fit over the 6 mini dental implants that were placed in the upper jaw. This way he would be able to wear the upper partial while the dental lab made his crowns/bridge.
6 crowns with pink porcelain to simulate gum tissue on the stone model from First Impressions Dental Lab
Retracted cheek view of his 6 crowns on six mini dental implants…1 year post placement. Notice all the smoking stain on his lower natural teeth.
Close up view of Crowns
Bite view of the 6 crowns on mini dental implants.
Overall I am happy. I know he is happy. I think his comment was, 'Doc now that I got my show teeth do I really need to get the rest of them fixed?' How do you answer that question as a Dentist?
Now if I could just get him to quit smoking, come in when he is required to for his cleanings and move forward with fixing the rest of his teeth….. But as they say, Rome was not built in a day so we move forward one MINI step at a time.
Paresh Patel DDS mini dental implants