All-on-four Dental Implants
Dr. Paulo Malo, a dentist in
Portugal, in cooperation with Nobel Biocare, has developed what he calls
the "All-on-Four" technique for dental implants.
The problem he is trying to
address is restoring the mouths of patients who have lost all their teeth
and don't have much bone left to retain dental implants. Often these
patients require extensive bone grafting procedures, which is time
consuming and expensive.
Dr. Malo found that if he
placed all the implants in the anterior of the jaw, where there is usually
better bone density, and if those implants were highly angled, they could
provide stable support for a complete denture.
The radiograph and diagram
below illustrate this technique.
|
Here is a panographic x-ray of the four
angled implants that have been placed. |
|
|
|
You can see above that the implants are
highly angled. But notice that the exposed tips of the dental
implants, the part sticking out of the bone, are all pointed
upward and are relatively parallel.
On the right you
can see that when the denture is screwed on, the screws are
all placed normally, because the angulation all occurs under
the surface of the tissue. |
|
Placing a denture over
All-on-Four dental implants |
But this technique isn't
without its critics. Renowned implant dentist Dr. Arthur Chal of
Phoenix who has pioneered other techniques, after thoroughly
studying the all-on-four technique, is concerned about its risks. If
one of the implants fails, the entire mouth has to be re-done, and
he feels that this is an unacceptable level of risk. To read his
comments, please see his
All-on-Four dental implants page.
Please see more information in
his web site on
dental implant
failure.
Click here to ask Dr.
Hall a question.
Click here for
referral to an expert cosmetic dentist.
