All on Four Dental Implants
All on Four dental implants are promoted as a way to anchor a complete tooth replacement appliance with a stable result. It's also promoted as a way to avoid costly bone grafting. But a word of caution is in order.
Here's how the concept works. When a patient is missing a lot of bone in the posterior of their mouth (which results in facial collapse), there is nothing left to hold the implants. To make up for being able to place stable implants in the posterior, four highly angled implants are placed in the anterior. The angled positioning is supposed to provide extra support, beyond that which would be provided by normally angled implants. This extra support is supposed to make the placement of dental implants in the posterior unnecessary.
The Problem with All on Four
While this may work for some people, sometimes quite honestly it seems to us like a shortcut that dentists are tempted to use when they don't want to go through the work and treatment time required to properly do bone grafting, and they don't fully disclose the risks involved.
One of your fundamental problems when you're missing all your teeth is that your body resorbs the bone that used to hold your teeth. Placing implants prevents this resorption. But if there are no implants placed in the posterior, the shrinkage goes on unchecked, making your jawbone weak in that area.
Another reason that All on Four is a controversial technique among implant dentists is the higher risk of failure, because of the extra stress on the implants. Those dentists who do the procedure maintain that there isn't any extra risk, but common sense and some studies verify it.
If you have questions about whether or not you would be a candidate for All on Four dental implants, we'd be happy to see you for a complimentary consultation to discuss it. Give us a call at (800) 711-4602, or click here to fill out our make an appointment page.