Dental Implants ‘artificial tooth roots ‘
Made usually of titanium, which serves to hold a replacement tooth or bridge or denture. A dental implant provides several advantages over other tooth replacement options. In addition to looking and functioning like natural teeth, it replaces teeth without sacrificing the health of the neighbouring teeth.
The other common treatment for loss of single tooth , a crown or a bridge, requires adjacent to be ground down to support it. Implants also integrate with bone keeping them healthy and intact.
Four Types of implant are follow us :
Implant supported
Crown or Bridge
A single implant or two to three implants replace a single tooth or a segment of the dental arch.
The crown or bridge can be a screw retained one in which the crown can be removed easily by the dentist as and when required or a cement retained one in which the crowns are secured by normal dental cements. these are difficult to retrieve if needed.
Dental Implants
With Dentures?
The dentures or teeth set are retained by two to four implants (two in lower jaw and four in upper jaw) by means of retentive attachments incorporated into the denture. This type of denture acts like something similar to a press type lock which can be removed as and when desired by the patient. There are many kinds of attachments which can be used . The two most commonly used are the..
Locator Attachment : This is a flat attachment and has been proven clinically to have a better ease of use especially for older patients with limited hand dexterity.
Ball Attachment : This is a round attachment and has good retentive capabilities. but the ease of use of this attachment is questionable due unfavourable undercuts
Fixed implant supported dentures
All on 4/ All on 6
The dentures or ceramic bridges are screwed or cemented over the implants by the dentist. these act almost similar to a complete natural set of teeth.
All on 4 : Four Implants are placed in the upper and lower jaw. Two front and two back implants. The back Implants are placed in an angulated manner so that it engages more bone in the jaw and also reduces the back side cantilever of the the prosthetic teeth set.
All on 6 : Either six straight implants can be placed in the bone if bone is available or All on 4 can be combined with two pterygoid Implants to gain better bone coverage in compromised bone condition cases.
Zygoma
Dental implants
These are used especially in severe bone loss patients in upper jaw where there is no bone to place implants. These implants are mostly placed under general anesthesia.
The Zygoma is the cheek bone which contains high cortical anchorage. This cortical bone is used to engage the prosthesis with addition of 2 -4 extra implants in front region.
