Unfortunately, the loss of all teeth or edentia can happen for one reason or another at a young age. Restoration of the dentition by the classical technique of the implant placement for each restored tooth is not always efficient from the viewpoint of both implantology and finance. The fact is that the jaw bone atrophy occurs together with the loss of teeth, and it is getting more intense, the more time passes after the loss of a tooth to the decision about the dental implant procedure.
Therefore, whatever the technique of the dental implant procedure is chosen by the specialist after the consultation and examination, all of them require bone augmentation or osteoplasty. Not always the patient is ready to do it. Not always contraindications of the patient’s health allow the doctor to do it.
However, there are not unsolvable problems in dental implantology today. In a situation of complete edentulous when the patient wants to avoid the bone augmentation and terms for the dental implant procedure are extremely short, there is a revolutionary solution that was developed by scientists Paulo Malo in the eighties, but it has been modernized and now it is widely used in modern approaches to dental implants. This technique «All-on-4″, whose name explains the main point of this implant type. The main point of this technique is the installation of only four implants, but with such load distribution so that non-removable denture, fixed to them, may cover the entire dentition at the same time. If necessary, six implants can be used, i.e. it depends on the ability of the denture and the implant to carry a load which is affected by its qualitative distribution.
Thus, it all begins with a decision about the dental implant technique «All-on-4″ on the consultation after a thorough diagnostics and then it requires three-dimensional computer planning and simulation of the future dental implant process and the desired result. The template and project of the denture are made after findings. The installation of four implants is performed the next day and the design of fixed denture will be ready after taking an impression by the evening. If the classical technique of the implant placement takes on the average six months, but in this case, the dental implant procedure and prosthetics take a day or two.
As with any other protocol of the dental implant procedure, it is important to treat oral cavity in the postoperative period carefully and responsibly and be ready for some restrictions during the recovery period. A temporary denture is replaced by a permanent one after the adaptation period and the process of osseointegration.
The contraindications for «All-on-4″ dental implants are the same as for other techniques and they are connected with general health of the patient and the possible concomitant chronic diseases.
It will be interesting to mention the financial aspects of this technique, since the installation of 4 implants will cost certainly less than the greater their number, which is also important. But, of course, the cost will be affected by skills of the doctor, possible post-operative expenses, and quality of the denture material.