All on 4: Jaw and Gum Resorption
Your teeth play many integral roles in your mouth. When you experience tooth loss, basic tasks like eating and speaking become much more challenging. Losing your teeth causes your digestion and nutrition to suffer. The quality of your smile suffers, which can cause your confidence to drop. Tooth loss even affects the health of your jawbone. The more teeth you lose, the worse the effects. While dental implants have become the ideal treatment for replacing missing teeth, known for their many benefits including stopping bone loss in your jaw, you need to have sufficient bone mass remaining to support the implant posts. If you are missing an entire arch of teeth and do not have the necessary bone mass to support implant posts, Florida Prosthodontics can help you to avoid the need for a bone graft with All on 4.
What are Dental Implants?
Dental implants are a popular treatment for replacing missing teeth. It is a unique treatment that uses small titanium posts to provide support for your dental restorations. The implant posts are surgically placed into your jaw. Your jawbone then gradually fuses to the posts as you heal. This turns the posts into stable roots that can hold your teeth securely in place, preventing them from shifting or falling out. Your teeth can function exactly like your natural teeth, and you can eat all of your favorite foods, speak normally, and smile confidently.
What is Jaw and Gum Resorption?
Your natural teeth perform several important tasks. While many of these tasks are well known, such as biting, chewing, and providing you with a gorgeous smile, your teeth also play an important role in the health of your jawbone. The teeth provide stimulation for your jaw, which triggers the body to send important nutrients that it needs to stay strong and healthy. Following tooth loss, your jawbone loses stimulation. Fewer nutrients are sent, which causes the bone to weaken.
Dentures are a common solution used for replacing missing teeth. However, dentures cannot stop bone loss in your jaw. As a result, it continues to occur, and your jaw continues to weaken and change shape. Dentures, particularly ones that do not fit properly, can accelerate jawbone resorption and can also cause gum resorption.
aw Resorption and Dental Implants
Dental implants have an incredibly high success rate. However, for your implants to be successful, you need to have enough bone mass remaining in your jaw. If you lose too much bone mass, your jawbone may not be able to fuse properly, or at all, to the posts in your jaw. This can cause your posts to be loose and wobbly, which then makes your replacement teeth unstable.
Stop Jaw and Gum Resorption with All on 4
Typically, for implants to be placed in a jawbone that is too weak, a bone graft is required. However, if you are missing an entire arch of teeth, you can avoid the need for a bone graft with All on 4. Rather than the 6 to 8 implant posts used for a regular full arch restoration, All on 4 uses only 4 posts. These posts are placed strategically in your jaw, their positioning crucial to the success of the treatment. Two posts are placed vertically at the front of your jaw, where you naturally have more bone mass. The other two posts are placed at a 45-degree angle toward the back of the mouth. This angle allows us to maximize contact with your existing jawbone, enabling maximum fusion.
Benefits of All on 4
All on 4 dental implants provide all of the same benefits as other dental implants. It also provides several of its unique benefits. These include:
| • | Less surgery. You require fewer posts, which means less surgery. |
| • | Shorter recovery. |
| • | Fewer office visits. |
| • | Lower cost. |
If you are missing an entire arch of teeth and have suffered a significant amount of bone loss, you still may be able to receive dental implants without the need for a bone graft. Call Florida Prosthodontics today at (321) 452-3388 to schedule your consultation and find out if All on 4 is right for you.
Merritt Island