Easy Dental Implant Placement to Replace a Missing Tooth with a Fixed Crown
Lets face it….we are getting older and our teeth age along with us. Some of us will have missing teeth due to decay or injury or just daily use. With tooth loss comes other potential problems. Such as aesthetic concerns and not being able to eat the things you like.
With the advent of a dental implant (a small titanium screw that is gently rotated into the gum and bone) we can now use that as a new root to anchor a replacement porcelain crown or bridge.
Here is a good example of how the bone starts to melt away after a tooth is lost. This also shows show the sinus cavity starts to drop down giving us even less volume of bone to place the dental implant. This is a great spot to use two mini dental implants or if there is enough width one larger regular size dental implant. I like using a one piece dental implant. It has the advantages of being cost effective, no microgap, and immediate use just like a mini dental implant.
Here we can see the missing molar tooth. Plenty of width of bone. Options given to the patient were 2 mini dental implants or one regular size one. In this case we decided to use a OCO Biomedical ISI one piece dental implant 4.0mm in diameter. Lots of times I have been asked, is it not harder to place the larger size implant. I don't think so. With the logical progression design of the OCO dental implants it is very similar in placement protocol to what I am use to doing with mini dental implants. One pilot bit and one final bit to form the bone. No flap of gum tissue is made. Patients go home with no blood or stitches.
Parallel pin in place to check for proper angle and depth. I will use some SalvinOsteotomes to push up the sinus and some DynaBlast bone putty to fill in around the end of the implant. Chris Totty at Salvin can provide additional information on these products.
Final photo of the OCO Biomedical ISI 4.0mm dental implant to replace the missing upper molar. As you can see, no blood and no stitches. It will have the same surface area as two mini dental implants. Either solution would provide this patient the opportunity to have her missing molar tooth once again.
Final x-ray with the sinus membrane bumped up to allow for the end of the OCO dental implant to be covered with added bone. This will fill in and turn into live bone in a few months. A i-TERO impression was taken and First Impressions Dental Lab will make a porcelain crown to fit over the OCO ISI one piece dental implant.
Paresh B Patel Dentist Mooresville NC