Full Mouth Dental Implants

There are many ways a set of teeth can be fixed to replaced missing teeth or teeth which have been lost due to gum disease or dental decay. These include -

1)Use of supporting firm teeth to relace missing teeth

2)Use of Conventional Dental Implants to replace missing teeth

3)Use of Basal/Bicortical implants to replace missing teeth

Conventional Implants For Full mouth Fixed Teeth

Conventional implants are the most common technique providing fixed set of teeth to patients who have lost all their teeth. The process is as follows -

Step 1 - Surgical and Prosthetic Planning for Dental Implant and Prosthesis

This includes Radiological and Medical examinations which helps us determine the course of action. Radiological examination is done with the use of CBCT scan which gives us a 3D image of the entire jaw which helps us plan the surgery to millimeter accuracy.

CBCT planning phase

Medical examination helps us determine that the patients medical status is optimal for placement of dental implants. Tests such as

a)CBC - Full blood profile

b)CT/BT - Bleeding parameter

c)INR - Bleeding parameter

d)ESR - Inflammation parameter

e)Viral Markers

Step 2 - Dental Implant Placement Surgery

Once the patient is found to be fit for surgery, dental implant placement is done. One question patients often ask that how many dental implants should a patient get to have a full set of fixed teeth? The ANSWER is 6 to 10.

The more the number of implants, the higher is the load bearing capacity and hence higher is the success of treatment.

The procedure in done under local anesthetic and mostly painless with mild discomfort of pressure when the implants are inserted. Most cases of implant placement is finished in a single sitting except few cases where patient want to get the dental implants placed in 2 to 3 sitting with multiple minor surgeries.

Step 3 - Healing phase and temporary teeth set

Healing of dental implants takes a minimum of 3 months, however, the dentist decides the time duration of healing based on various factors such as -

1. Bone quality

2. Bone Quantity - good quality bone , less healing period, poor quality bone, more healing period

3. Implant type -Long implants embedded deeply and tightly in bone generally can be loaded in 3 months, but if bone surrounding implant is less and implant is not tightly embedded in bone, it may take more time to heal.

During this healing phase, a temporary denture is given to the patient.

Step 4 - Permanent Fixed teeth

Once the implants heal, the dentist makes multiple measurements of your mouth in order to determine-

1. The shape of the teeth

2. The size of the teeth

3. color of teeth

4. Number of teeth that need to be fitted on the implants

Once the measurements are made, a prosthesis is fabricated using Computer aided design and milling which is then either cemented of screwed into the implants