Teeth in a day. The All on 4 concept

Your natural teeth should last a lifetime, but with our modern diets of sugary foods and fizzy drinks, teeth can become overfilled and fail.

Teeth can also suffer from gum disease and after losing the surrounding bone become loose.

One or all of these teeth can have a poor long-term prognosis; and it is then that you have to decide on keeping them or taking them out.

Keeping loose or painful teeth can also be a health hazard as some of the germs around the tooth or gum infection can enter the blood stream and cause contaminate the blood system and heart.

It is always a good idea to treat gum disease and clear the infection.

Sometimes the tooth is so overfilled that there is very little tooth left.

It is then that you need expert advice.

Missing teeth can be replaced by using the adjacent teeth as supports for a bridge.

Bridges are done less nowadays because trimming down adjacent healthy teeth can reduce their life expectancy as well.

Dentures are so old hat that most people if they can afford it would rather not have a loose uncomfortable denture.

What is the alternative?

Implants

Dental implants have been around for 55 years and they replace missing teeth.

With careful planning an implant can be placed inside the jaw-bone within 30 minutes.

Dental implants can restore a smile, bring back confidence and restore function.

Dental implants are made from pure sterile titanium. It has been known since 1965 that bone will adhere to the titanium surface and fix the implant. There are many companies that have a long track record with implants, such as Nobel Biocare, Straumann, Astra and Implant Direct etc. Implants can last a lifetime if your cleaning is well maintained. In fact Nobel Biocare implants carry a life time warranty.

Dental implants can replace many missing teeth by way of a fixed dental bridge.

The bridge carries more than 2 teeth with the aid of 2 or more dental implants.

Removing a tooth and placing a dental implant is the best way of maintaining the bone level and preventing bone loss.

A full implant bridge maintained on multiple implants also helps prevent facial bone and volume loss and that aged look that you get with dentures.

All on 4 concept

When teeth are removed we can place an implant immediately into the socket. This saves one having another operation to place an implant at a later date.

You can have a temporary crown or bridge placed over the implant or implants at the same time or within 1 week.

All on 4 or Teeth in a day is a concept whereby we can plan and place implants by designing the implants in 3D on a cat scan and also create a temporary tooth/ teeth before we take out any teeth.

In more extreme cases many patients ask for all their teeth to be removed as they are too difficult to keep healthy and opt for fixed bridges on 4-6 implants.

This is the concept of All on 4 or All on 6 implant bridges.

Many patients who have seen a deterioration in their smile can opt for a new smile with bridges supported on implants and provided the same day that teeth are removed.

The bridges are attached to the implants and can be detached annually by the dentist for an annual maintenance and clean.