“All-on-4” Dental Implants: Newer Procedure LESS Expensive Than Older Predecessors, PART 3

This five-part article series explains how the newer “All-on-4” dental implant protocol manages to vastly undercut the cost of more traditional techniques for full mouth reconstruction.

 Previously, in many cases, patients would schedule an appointment with a dental implant surgeon desperate for an alternative solution after wearing partial or full removable dentures for many years. What they wouldn’t realize is – as a consequence of denture wearing - just how extensive the damage to their jawbone is and that this would typically require an additional surgery to correct before they can even be considered for implants.

Welcome to the third installment of this five-part article series on how the “All-on-4” dental implant protocol makes it possible for Sun City residents to save tens of thousands of dollars on the cost of a beautiful new set of permanent teeth! The opening paragraph is an excerpt from Part 2, which leads us nicely into the second way the “All-on-4” technique saves patients an incredible amount of money. Let’s jump right in…

The “All-on-4” Saves Patients on the Cost of Bone Grafting Surgery

One of the greatest problems associated with wearing dentures is jawbone atrophy. As we can see in the picture above, over time, the jawbone physically wastes away and this happens because the patient no longer has natural tooth roots to stimulate it and maintain its bulk and strength.

Few Sun City residents understand this very important fact when they have their failing dentition replaced with removable dentures, but your tooth roots play a fundamental role in keeping your jawbone healthy and strong. By transmitting the eating forces into the underlying bone, they help to keep it “exercised”. Bone tissue, just like muscle tissue, needs this stimulation to stay strong, or else it just becomes resorbed by the body in a process called “atrophy”.

This brings us to a crucial problem faced by patients and dental implant surgeons in Sun City:

As it was explained in the opening paragraph, in many cases, patients would have worn dentures for such a long period of time that their jawbones would have deteriorated too much for traditional dental implant procedures to be considered viable treatment options without first performing a bone grafting procedure. And so, the first step in treatment would involve a terribly invasive, painful and costly surgery and a lengthy recovery period before a patient could even begin thinking about getting dental implants.

Thankfully, this all changed with the advent of “All-on-4” dental implants, which was specifically developed by Dr. Paulo Malo and his team to overcome this hurdle in the treatment of edentulous (toothless) and near-edentulous patients.

The “All-on-4” Difference: Strategic Implant Layout Avoids Need for Bone Grafting

With the “All-on-4,” the layout of dental implants is carefully determined so as to maximize the support offered by the available jawbone volume, even in patients who have been wearing dentures for many, many years:

• Two implants are inserted in the front portion of the jaw, where the bone is more resistant to atrophy and is therefore typically bulkier.

• Another two implants are inserted at an angle towards the back of the jaw and this angulation provides them with greater stability and support.

Together, these four implants are almost always sufficient to provide a rigid platform to which a customized dental bridge can be attached.

What this means is that most denture-wearing Arizona residents can be considered candidates for “All-on-4” dental implants, which enables them to get a beautiful new set of teeth without the need for costly bone grafting surgery beforehand. This saves these people a lot of pain and many thousands of dollars! It also eliminates the several months of recovery that are needed before the implants can be placed.

Overcoming the need for bone grafting surgery is a major benefit offered by “All-on-4” dental implants and it’s one of two reasons full mouth reconstruction is possible in just one surgical appointment! We’ll explore the second reason in Part 4, coming next week…

Stay Tuned for Part 4

To find out how else “All-on-4” dental implants can save Sun City residents tens of thousands of dollars on the cost of beautiful new teeth, stay tuned for the fourth installment of this five-part article series coming next week.