Monday, October 29, 2012

A Comprehensive Guide to All on Four Dental Implants in Houston, PART 4

This four-part article series takes an in-depth look at All-on-Four dental implants, what they are and the various benefits they offer over removable dentures and traditional dental implant protocols.

Welcome to the final installment of this four-part article series on All on Four dental implants in Houston. We have spent much of these articles discussing how this surgical protocol works and its numerous benefits and advantages over removable dentures, as well as traditional dental implant techniques. In this article, the final installment of the series, we shall address patients’ frequently asked questions and expressed concerns. Armed with this information, it is hoped that you will all have a much better understanding of what to expect from the procedure and how your decision to receive All on Four dental implants in Houston is in the best interests of your long term oral health and quality of life!

FAQ: What is the success rate of All on Four dental implants in Houston?

Answer:  Scientific, peer-reviewed articles have shown that All on Four dental implants in Houston have a 97.0% to 98.0% success rate when placed in the upper arch and a 98.2% success rate when placed in the lower arch. Of course, success rates also vary from dentists to dentist. Make sure you opt for a highly qualified and experienced implant dentist. When it comes to the placement of All on Four dental implants in Houston, education is second only to experience!

FAQ: Who is the ideal candidate for All on Four dental implants in Houston?

All on Four dental implants Houston

Answer: All on Four dental implants in Houston are ideally recommended for patients who are currently wearing dentures or will, sometime in the near future, require dentures to be fitted. The ideal candidate, although edentulous (not having a single original adult tooth left) or near-edentulous, will also be in good health and present with little deterioration of jaw bone health and volume.

The best way to find out whether you are a candidate for All on Four dental implants in Houston is to contact a qualified and experienced implant dentist and book yourself a consultation. It is important to note that even patients presenting with advanced jaw bone atrophication have managed to have a new set of teeth placed; regardless of age too!

FAQ: Where are the replacement teeth for All on Four dental implants in Houston made?

Answer: The prosthetic dental bridge affixed to the abutments of All on Four dental implants in Houston is fabricated in a laboratory, which, in the case of advanced dental implant centers, is generally located on-site. They are custom-built from molds taken of a patient’s teeth and gums.

FAQ: What can I expect from the procedure required to place All on Four dental implants in Houston?

Answer: Every patient has a different experience when undergoing oral rehabilitation. In general, however, the guidelines provided for the placement of All on Four dental implants in Houston are as follows:

  • Prior to surgery, patients are required to come for between one and two consultations during which you will receive a comprehensive clinical examination. Your medical history will also be taken down and preparatory procedures performed, such as X-ray imaging and impressions.

All on Four dental implants

  • The surgery can almost always be completed in a few hours. You will have any remaining teeth extracted, the dental implants placed and a temporary dental bridge placed; all in the space of one day.
  • After the placement of your All on Four dental implants in Houston, you will be required to return for (usually) two post-op visits to make sure your new teeth are healing nicely.
  • You will be required to come for a consultation approximately four months after surgery to have new molds of your teeth taken in order to facilitate in the fabrication of your permanent dental bridge.
  • Six months after the placement of your All on Four dental implants in Houston, you will have your permanent dental bridge permanently placed in your mouth.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

A Comprehensive Guide to All on 4 Dental Implants in Houston, PART 3

This four-part article series takes an in-depth look at All-on-Four dental implants, what they are and the various benefits they offer over removable dentures and traditional dental implant protocols.

Welcome back to our four-part article series on All on 4 dental implants in Houston. In our previous post, we discussed the key differences between this breakthrough dental implant protocol and that archaic tooth replacement technology, removable dentures. In this article, the third installment of the series, we shall be exploring how All on 4 dental implants make it possible for specially-trained and experienced implant dentists to provide patients with a new set of non-removable teeth, almost always without the need for bone grafting surgery first. We shall then discuss the benefits of this unprecedented feat in implant surgery.

All on 4 Dental Implants in Houston and Bone Grafting Surgery

All on 4 dental implants

In our previous article post, we discussed the importance of the roots of your teeth in keeping the underlying jaw bone stimulated and alive. Just like the muscles in your body, if bone doesn’t get exercised, it atrophies and wastes away in volume. Removable dentures only replace the visible part (the crowns) of your teeth. But All on 4 dental implants in Houston replace both the roots AND the crowns. As such, they help to keep a patient’s jaw bone alive and healthy. But what All on 4 dental implants are really known for are their ability to provide comprehensive tooth replacement solutions to patients who have gone without teeth and/or with removable dentures for so long that they have lost a substantial amount of jaw bone volume.

Prior to the innovation of All on 4 dental implants in Houston, dentists would recommend bone grafting surgery to patients before implants could be considered a viable treatment option. This surgery is intended to augment and encourage the growth of new and healthy hard tissue in the jaw so that it can support replacement teeth. But there are three problems with bone grafting:
 
  1. It’s incredibly invasive and causes much post-operative pain and discomfort,
  2. It requires several months of healing before the jaw bone is strong enough to support dental implants,
  3. It is very expensive.
The result of all this is that patients would have to wait up to 18 months before they could get a complete set of new teeth placed. This is not even to mention the tens of thousands of dollars oral rehabilitation cost them. No wonder so many of them opted instead for removable dentures!

All on 4 Dental Implants in Houston: The Difference

All on 4 dental implants Houston

Through the precise placement and angulation of four dental implants in regions of the mouth that naturally contain a greater volume of atrophy-resistant bone tissue, trained implant dentists are able to provide enough support for a customized prosthetic dental bridge WITHOUT the need for bone grafting first. This is true in most patient cases and the result is that All on 4 dental implants in Houston can almost always provide patients with a brand new set of non-removable, immediately functional teeth in as little as a single day, with a single surgery!

This unprecedented feat in oral rehabilitation is also made possible by the fact that All on 4 dental implants in Houston, as the name suggests, only requires four dental implants per jaw in order to provide patients with a complete set of teeth. Older and more traditional surgical protocol frequently required as many as 20 dental implants for oral rehabilitation. These dental implants could not all be placed in a single surgery. And so, a patient’s journey to oral rehabilitation would have to be broken up into multiple surgeries and recovery periods. Can you see the costs mounting up here?

With only four implants required, All on 4 dental implants in Houston can be placed in a single surgery, enabling patients to go from being completely toothless to having a full and confident smile… all in a single day! This breakthrough surgical protocol also saves patients from unnecessary discomfort, exorbitant medical bills and all that time off from work and life!

All on 4 Dental Implants in Houston: Stay Tuned

To read the answers to some of patients’ frequently asked questions about All on 4 dental implants in Houston, stay tuned for the final installment of this four-part article series.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

A Comprehensive Guide to All on Four Implants, PART 2

This four-part article series takes an in-depth look at All-on-Four dental implants, what they are and the various benefits they offer over removable dentures and traditional dental implant protocols.

Welcome back to our four-part article series on All on Four implants. In our previous post, we provided an introduction to this advanced surgical protocol for fixed oral rehabilitation and ended off with a brief discussion on the differences between All on Four implants and removable dentures; an archaic and out-dated dental technology. In this article, we shall take a closer look at the benefits and advantages of All on Four implants over dentures and why any patient who desperately requires a new set of teeth should opt for the fixed and non-removable solution afforded by the former.

Key Differences Between All on Four Implants and Removable Dentures

All on Four implants

As opposed to false teeth, or removable dentures, the All on Four surgical protocol gives patients a complete set of permanent teeth that look, function and feel like natural teeth.
The All on Four prosthetic bridge:

  • Is fixed and non-removable and won’t shift around or fall out.
  • Is brushed, flossed and cared for just like natural teeth.
  • Doesn’t need to be removed after meals or at nighttime for cleaning.
  • Is fixed in place by dental implants and so doesn’t require messy, sticky adhesives.
  • Is supported entirely by the jaw bone and not the underlying soft tissue. As such, All on Four implants don’t cause any pain, inflammation and discomfort of the gums.
  • Does not necessitate a constant investment in anesthetic gels in order to combat the pain caused by dentures pressing down on and rubbing against the gums.
  • Enables patients to experience their food properly: taste, texture and temperature!
  • Does not trigger the gag reflex.
  • Does not harbor food and bacteria, causing bad breath.
  • Enables patients to bite down with a strong natural force, allowing them to eat all the foods they love and need to remain strong and healthy.
  • All on Four implants promote good jaw bone health, thus preserving a patient’s youthful smile aesthetics.
  • Without the risk of denture slippage and the unnatural aesthetics caused by bulky dentures pushing against the lips from inside the mouth, All on Four implants give patients a much more beautiful and confident smile.
  • All on Four implants last decades and even a lifetime without the need for restoration and replacement.
  • Dentures need to be refitted every few years or so as a result of loss of bone volume in the jaw (see image below).

All on Four

For all these reasons and more, All on Four implants constitute a much smarter investment, not only in your oral health, but in your overall quality of life too. In order to fully appreciate many of the benefits offered by All on Four implants, one needs to understand the consequences of allowing missing teeth to go without replacement…

All on Four Implants: The Importance of Replacing Missing Teeth

Many patients only think about their appearance when it comes to replacing a tooth or several teeth that have gone missing. They think that as long as their replacement teeth look okay and work well enough to allow them to eat, then it’s worth the money they paid. But technologies such as removable dentures only replace the visible portion of missing teeth: the crowns. But the roots of the teeth play an essential role in keeping the underlying jaw bone stimulated and healthy. Without them, this hard tissue atrophies from disuse and wastes away. Jaw bone atrophy:

- Has a substantial aging effect upon one’s natural facial contours,
- Upsets dental stability along the tooth row, increasing your chance of losing more teeth,
- A greater risk of bacterial infection to your entire mouth,
- Can render the success of dental implant surgery doubtful.

Thankfully, the loss of bone volume consistently seen in patients who had gone without teeth and/or with dentures for many years could be overcome by All on Four implants. And in our next article installment, we’ll discuss exactly how!

All on Four Implants: Stay Tuned

All on Four implants

To find out how All on Four implants can bypass the need for bone grafting surgery and what the benefits of this are, stay tuned for the third installment of this four-part article series.

Monday, October 8, 2012

A Comprehensive Guide to All on Four Implants, PART 1

This four-part article series takes an in-depth look at All-on-Four dental implants, what they are and the various benefits they offer over removable dentures and traditional dental implant protocols.

Prior to the innovation of All on Four implants, a patient’s journey to oral rehabilitation could involve as much as 18 months’ worth of consultations, surgeries and recovery periods. The associated medical bills were prohibitively high and the result was that most edentulous (toothless) and near-edentulous patients opted for that archaic tooth replacement technology; removable dentures. The problem with this is that false teeth, as they are colloquially known, are not only inferior in function and aesthetics to dental implants, they are actually damaging to a patient’s health, well-being and overall quality of life.

It was only in 1993, when All on Four implants were innovated by European implantologist Dr. Paulo Malo, that many of the challenges and obstacles facing traditional dental implant techniques could be overcome. Nowadays, a new set of beautiful, non-removable and immediately functional teeth are possible with the breakthrough All on Four implants protocol. In this four-part article series, we shall be taking an in-depth exploration of this surgical protocol and why patients who are edentulous, or who are facing an immediate future of edentulism should consider All on Four implants as their tooth replacement solution. But first, let’s take a look at All on Four implants… what are they?

What is the All on Four Protocol?

All on Four implants

The All on Four protocol, or All-on-4, is a surgical technique that governs the placement of dental implants in a patient’s mouth. It is generally recommended for edentulous and near-edentulous patients who have lost most, if not all of their teeth to periodontal (gum) disease. These are the patients who would formerly be considered candidates for removable dentures. All on Four implants, as the name suggests, involves the permanent attachment of a fully customized prosthetic dental bridge to the abutments of four dental implants per jaw.

These implants are inserted at very precise locations in the mouth (and at very precise angles too) in order to reap maximum support for the bridge without the need for bone grafting surgery first. This additional surgery is frequently required for patients who have lived without teeth and/or dentures for many years. The ability of All on Four implants to almost always avoid the need for bone grafting surgery is perhaps one of its greatest advantages it boasts over traditional dental implant protocols. And this is because:

  • All on Four implants allows skilled and experienced oral surgeons to provide patients with a new set of teeth in as little as a single day, with a single surgery, and
  • All on Four implants substantially reduces the cost of oral rehabilitation by an average amount of $25,000!

All on Four Implants and Removable Dentures: What’s the Difference?

All on Four

Any dentist or dental healthcare professional worth their salt will tell you that dental implants offer a much more comprehensive and long term solution to missing teeth than removable dentures. The latter comes with a whole host of challenges and repeated expenses that, at the end of the day, can severely compromise a patient’s quality of life. In fact, research has shown that the patients who have been wearing dentures for 15 years can only bite down with a force of six pounds per square inch. That’s 97% of one’s natural bite force lost!

The ramifications of this are debilitating and serious: most patients end up eating without their dentures because it’s more comfortable for them. Malnutrition is an associated problem. The difference between All on Four implants and dentures is the difference between being happy, healthy and confident and being miserable, challenged and uncomfortable. And when you consider that long-time denture wearers generally live 10 years shorter than those with healthy teeth, this is no exaggeration!

All on Four implants

All on Four Implants: Stay Tuned

To find out what the key differences between All on Four implants and removable dentures are, stay tuned for the second installment of this four-part article series.