Mini Dental Implants for Missing Laterals
One of the most prevalent dental conditions is missing upper laterals (about 10% of the population is missing these teeth from birth).
Some of the time, even with orthodontics, there is not enough space to restore the missing teeth with traditional implants (implants with a diameter greater than 3.0 mm).
Most of the patients I have seen either have some sort of removable appliance or a orthodontic retainer with the two missing teeth on it. The issue is that these teens don't really care to wear their retainer.
Another solution, the bonded bridge, seems to fail. While the bonded bridge works well on missing lowers, the clinical data shows that bonded bridges to replace missing upper laterals fail quite often because the central and canine tooth both move to different degrees under chewing function.
One solution that works well in my hands is a technique that Dr. Todd Shatkin taught me….use mini dental implants. The Intra Lock or IMTEC Mini Dental Implant can be threaded in between the canine and central. This mini implant can then hold a crown in place that the patient does not remove.
This photograph shows a Intra Lock 2.5 x 18mm mini dental implant to replace missing laterals.