Upper Partial or Mini Dental Implant Bridge?
It seems here lately we have had a lot of patients come in that are unhappy, frustrated and just don't like their partial dentures. They specifically want to just get rid of it and replace it with some mini dental implants and a set of porcelain crowns or porcelain bridges.
Photo of my patients existing upper partial denture that replaces most of her upper front teeth. I did not think it looked all that bad for being 7 years old….she just did not like it. The way it kept her from tasting her food, the way she talked with it, the bulk of metal as she put it on the roof of her mouth. She also did not like the lower but wanted to start with replacing the top partial plate with mini dental implants and a bridge.
Like most patients that seem to find me…she had what looked at initial glance good bone. However on the x-ray it was mostly tissue. It had just been too long since the teeth had been extracted and the bone had just melted away. Without roots the body over time just starts taking away the bone. If an ill fitting partial sits and rubs on the bone year after year it accelerates the process of bone resorption.
So we went over the options as usual of traditional implants and some bone augmentation or I could use what bone she had, place at least 6 minis and make her a 8 tooth bridge to replace her missing teeth.
I used her existing upper partial denture plate as a guide on where I could place the mini dental implants. I drilled a hole in the center of each tooth, placed in back in her mouth and with a marking stick located the ideal place for the mini implant.
Of course in her mouth most of the 'ideal' locations had less than ideal bone.
Photo of 6 mini dental implants placed day of. You can see 2 areas where we tried to get the last 2 mini dental implants in but found poor bone. These areas will just fill back in with gum tissue.
A impression was taken of the mini dental implants and off to First Impressions Dental Lab for them to make the 8 tooth porcelain bridge. In three weeks her mini dental implant bridge will be back and I will post the photos.
Paresh B Patel DDS mini dental implant dentist