Dental implants are an excellent way to replace missing teeth. Implants look and feel like your natural teeth and restore your perfect smile. However, traditional implants involve long waiting periods for initial surgery to heal, and can require bone grafts. A new procedure, known as All-on-4® implants, can give you new teeth right away.
How Does All-on-4® Work?
With traditional implants, typically one implant is placed for each missing tooth. The implant itself is a titanium screw that is placed in the jawbone. The subsequent healing period, which can last several weeks, allows the titanium to bond to the bone. If you lack sufficient bone mass in your jaw, you might require bone grafts to support this number of implants.
With All-on-4®, only four individual root implants are placed in the upper or lower jaw. They are inserted into the areas of the jawbone where the bone mass is the strongest, so bone grafts are unnecessary. The prosthetic teeth, with carefully color-matched chewing and biting surfaces, are anchored on these four implants.
Advantages of All-on-4®
This approach to dental implants is very helpful to those who lack sufficient bone mass to support traditional implants. Many people who have worn dentures for a number of years face this difficulty. Traditional dentures often lead to a breakdown of bone in the jaw because dentures do not stimulate the bone to grow.
With this revolutionary approach to implants, you can have your implants completely placed in one day. The root portion is placed first and then the prosthetic teeth are immediately added. Often, implants can even be placed immediately after teeth are removed.
Recovery time for this procedure also tends to be shorter than that for traditional implants, and often the overall cost is lower.
If you are interested in learning more about this procedure or to find out if it’s right for you, call our office, serving Bedford and surrounding areas, today at 817-552-3223 to schedule a consultation with Dr. Tye.
