Today, we’re going to be talking about full-mouth implants. You might’ve been researching them, or maybe your dentist said you might be a good candidate for full-mouth implants. So what does that mean?
Understanding Full Mouth Implants
It can be a misleading term. Initially, some people thought full mouth implants meant for every tooth you have taken out. We put in an implant and restore every one of them, and there have been cases like that, but that’s not necessary anymore. We found that we could strategically place a specific number of implants in each arch and build a full set of teeth on those implants. So when it comes to full mouth implants, you’ve got basically one of two approaches.
Removable Dentures with Implants
If you’re making something removable, like a denture that you take out at night, once you take the teeth out, you can put at least four implants on the top and four, ideally, on the bottom. You can also build a denture that has snaps on the inside. Once the implants have healed, we put custom gold attachments on them that stick through the tissue and allow the denture to snap into place.
Customization and Maintenance
It’s a great significant upgrade on the quality of a conventional denture because instead of working with tissue and tongue attachments and worrying about stability, it snaps in and locks onto those implant attachments. The nice thing is they’re customizable, and the implant stays in your mouth. A little gold piece comes through the tissue, and on the inside of your denture, there’s a little snap with the rubber attachment.
When you put those four attachments in, they snap into place and stay all day long. You can talk, eat, sing in your choir, do whatever you want, and take it out at night. But over time, the system has been designed so those little rubber snaps can wear a little bit and are fully interchangeable. When you come into the office, we can switch them out and change them real quick. They go from only one pound of retention all the way up to eight pounds of retention.
So when we start, we always start light because if we put too much retention in there, patients can’t get it out. And so I know that sounds like a good problem to have a denture that doesn’t come out, but we want you to be able to take it out at night so you can clean it and remove it.
Fixed Hybrid Dentures
Essentially, this is a fully customized denture that snaps into those implants and an alternative if you’re looking for a solution that stays in your mouth, something you cannot take in and out that only we can take in and out for you. We have a fixed hybrid, essentially the same day the teeth are taken out. We put in implants, and we put a temporary set of teeth onto those implants, and we screw it into the implants. So when you leave that day from the surgery, you’ve got a full set of teeth either on the top or the bottom or sometimes both top and bottom that you’re able to chew and function with.
Healing and Functionality
Something to remember is that even though they look like real teeth in a full set of teeth, you can’t function with them like a regular permanent set of teeth because the implants are still healing, and the bone is still growing on the implant. So, for the first three or four months after that surgery, you can eat anything you can cut with a fork. We just want to wait until we get the permanent one on there to eat anything else because the implants are fully healed by then.
Permanent Set of Teeth
At about three to four months after the implants are healed, we make your customized set of porcelain teeth look very real and lifelike, as well as a zirconia bar and pink ceramics. So the whole process, when you’re all said and done, looks like you’ve got a full set of teeth that are attached to those implants. You cannot take them in or out. And when you smile and talk and chew, it looks like you’ve got a natural set of teeth.
Who Can Benefit from Full Mouth Implants?
This is a great solution for patients who have either multiple missing teeth or multiple teeth that are broken down or for someone who wants a solution that doesn’t involve them taking anything in and out. People have very valid concerns and fears. They have memories of their grandma or parents, even with a glass on their side table and their dentures sitting in it. And a lot of people don’t want to be in that situation. So fixed implants are a solution that you can come in with the teeth that you’re really unhappy with and leave that same day with a full set of teeth attached to implants.
Considering Full Mouth Implants
Some of the comments we get from patients and YouTubers are that they just want their teeth taken out. And that’s valid if you’re frustrated, in pain, have gone through a lot of dental trauma, and you’re at your wits’ end and just want your teeth taken out. However, it may not always be the best solution.
Our Approach at Dental Implant and Aesthetic Specialist
Come in, talk to us. Let us present you with your options. At our core, we’re pretty conservative. We, as a practice, like to save teeth, so we always want to save teeth because we can build up and replace and do everything, but we can’t get you back to where your natural teeth were when you were 17 or 18 years old. Simply taking the teeth out may not always be the best solution so if we can keep the teeth and build around it, absolutely, that’s our default plan.
When Full Mouth Implants are Necessary
Sometimes, you do reach the point where your teeth have gone through destruction and wear and tear, and they’re broken down, and it’s caused the collapse of your bite, or it’s caused dental pain elsewhere, or you only have a few remaining teeth that are great teeth. Sometimes, at that point, a full mouth of implants might be the best solution for you.
Why Choose Us?
Many offices can provide you with teeth in a day and full mouth-fixed implants, and there’s a good chance that many offices do a great job. Something that I take great pride in here is that we plan each case very specifically. Every patient is unique, and every case is unique. We start with a lot of planning. It starts with a three-dimensional cone beam scan and a full medical history evaluation, followed by any of your other physicians to make sure that you are a good candidate for implants. But then also, a lot of detailed planning goes behind the scenes to make sure you’ve got the right quality bone and that we can put the implants in the right spot to support those teeth. We do a lot of homework. We do a lot of prep work so that on the day of surgery, we can come in very confident that we have the best plan customized for your mouth that we know is going to work.
The Importance of Expertise
Unfortunately, some places want to just get through as many patients as they can, and sometimes, unfortunately, I think a lot of things start to look the same and a lot of final results look the same, and everybody has that same look, and the results are either esthetic or are eventually going to fail. One of the things that we are really proud of is that by planning ahead of time, we can prevent many mishaps in other offices. So one of the things that really sets us apart is our experience with not only the surgical side, but also with the restorative side of these complicated procedures.
Experience Matters
I like to tell people that you’re not going to go to a plastic surgeon who does one nose job a year to do your nose job. You want to go to the guy that knows his stuff, does a good job, can show you examples of before and after, can show you they know exactly what’s going on, but also somebody who says, you know what? I’ve had things go wrong, and we know how to fix it. We know how to plan for that. Our goal is to help you improve your dental health, whether that’s something small or something large. We’re building a relationship, and I want that relationship to be lifelong.
Conclusion
So if you find yourself in a situation where you’ve been instructed or guided towards a full mouth implant case or you feel like that might be something that you’re looking at or would be appropriate for you, please come see us. We’d love to talk to you. Sit down, do a consultation, kind, let you know what your options are, and plan out what the best roadmap for you would be. I’m Dr. Brett Langston. I’m a prosthodontist and owner of Dental Implant and Aesthetic Specialist, and we’re here to help you watch your mouth. I’m Dr. Brett Langston. I’m a prosthodontist here.
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