What Are Implant Retained Dentures?
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The Need for Implant Retained Dentures
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The best candidates for implant retained dentures are long-term denture wearers, mainly elderly people who lost their own teeth at a young age. When the upper and/or lower jaws, the maxilla and the mandible, lose the natural dentition either due to gum disease, decay or injury, the bone ridges no longer have anything to support. As part of the healing response after a patient gets teeth removed, the sockets fill in with bone and the ridge begins to reshape itself. Finally, the ridge, after years disappears to the point that a denture wearer can no longer keep them in their mouth, using them as intended, making speaking or chewing an impossibility. While implants can be used on both upper and lower jaws, commonly referred to in dentisry as the upper and lower arches, the lower arch is usually the most common.
Double Abutment Screw Implants
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There are two types of dental implant procedures for dentures; the first is the conservative approach. A dentist gets a comprehensive X-ray of the upper and lower jaws to investigate how thick the bone is to hold the implant. With denseness now determined, the oral surgeon or dentist will select two areas, one on either side of the arch, usually where the original canine or cuspid teeth were. He flaps open gums in these areas, and a number of reamers on a drill used to create a pathway for the implant into the bone. The reamer is X-rayed in place periodically to ensure it is not going deeper than necessary. Once she properly prepares the hole, she twists a titanium or surgical steel implant screw into the hole created for it. The heads of the screws are the implants that will keep the denture in place. She stitches the gum tissue back into place around the screw. Modifying the patient's current denture to accommodate the screws temporarily while healing occurs is the final step in this appointment.
Custom Metal Framework Implants
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This implant procedure is literally the last resort for a patient. It means the bone has deteriorated to the point where the screw implant system would be ineffective and dangerous to the nerves that travel under the bone. This method requires the gum tissue on the arch to be flapped and retracted, exposing the remaining bone underneath. An impression of the exposed bone with highly accurate impression material will ensure a proper fit of the titanium or surgical steel framework to be made between appointment. The dentist puts the gums back into their original condition, then stitches them closed. The patient goes home for about a week. The distinctive custom framework will have two implant heads attached to it. Upon return for the next appointment, the removal of the patient's sutures precipitates the tissue once again receiving flapping and retraction. The framework, placed over the bone receives hydroxy apatite (synthetic bone) crystals to help the bone adhere to the metal. The dentist again sutures gums back together, leaving the implant screws sticking up through the gums. Modification of the patient's denture to accommodate the hardware allows the patient to use it temporarily while healing occurs.
Implant Retained Denture
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Once a proper amount of healing has occurred, the patient returns to the dental office and gets impressions started for a new denture. The dentist constructs this denture with precision attachments that coincide with the implant screws that are jutting up from the patient's arch. Upon completion of the new denture to be made, it will easily snap onto the implant screws that jut out from the tissue. Once the denture snaps into place on the implants, the denture is properly retained, and the patient can once again eat and talk with relative ease.
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