Teeth form an essential part of our image, given that clean and well looked after teeth, coupled with a nice smile, denote smartness, a youthful appearance and help us to relate with the environment around us.
The loss of teeth and the lack of replacing them, can cause a number of alterations: loss of balance in the positioning and strength of the masticatory apparatus, temporomandibular joint pain, pain of the cervico-facial muscles, headaches and pathological movements of neighbouring teeth.
There are currently two methods of replacing missing teeth:
These solutions limit the ability to chew due to the instability that they have. In the medium term, they provoke further bone loss, and in the case of partial dentures, lesions in the adjacent teeth. Possibility of partial or complete dentures.
The fixed prosthesis (bridge) is the classic choice. The application of this is achieved thanks to the adjoining teeth, which helps to reduce their size, and two covers are made which anchor the prosthesis. It has the drawback of needing teeth on both sides of the hole and having to work with two healthy teeth.
However, current surgical techniques are available which are not very invasive and allow us to replace the absent teeth through osseointegrated implants, offering traditional benefits to traditional methods.
When the patient arrives for their first consultation, a complete dental history will be taken along with a thorough examination
of their current dental status. The study will be completed with a panoramic x-ray (ortopantomografia), and a dental scanner if necessary. This will allow us to assess if the patient is a good candidate or not to have an implant treatment, and what type is best suited for their needs.
The surgery is done following strict aseptic procedures, and in an operating room equipped with the latest technology. Local anaesthesia will be used with or without sedation, depending on the number of implants and the difficulty of each case.
In this first phase of treatment, dental implants are placed in the jawbone or mandible
. The use of local anaesthesia associated with sedation, guarantees the absence of pain or discomfort throughout the procedure. The approximate procedure time ranges from between one to two hours, depending on the case. Once surgery is completed, the implants can be recovered with gum for a while, to allow their full integration into the bone. This period usually takes between 3 and 6 months depending on whether the implants are placed in the mandible or maxilla. The postoperative period is not usually painful. During the first few days it is advised to follow a soft diet and oral antibiotics. Anti-inflammatory and analgesics medications will be administered.
Once the implants have integrated, 3 to 6 months after the first intervention, small transepithelial abutments are placed on the implants
, to connect them to the future teeth. It is a simple procedure that is always performed under local anaesthetic. From this moment begins the prosthetic phase, i.e. the connection of the implants to porcelain or acrylic teeth
as appropriate. This procedure usually lasts a month.
Due to advances in dental implantology, the times between the first and second phases are shortening greatly, making it possible in some cases to have both procedures at once and an immediate function of the implant
. In other words, in one single intervention, they place the implants and fix the prosthesis onto them, thereby eliminating the intermediary phase of 3 to 6 months where the patient must have a provisional resin prosthesis, and accelerating the patient’s social integration.
In those cases where implants may be contraindicated due to lack of bone for anchoring, advanced implantology techniques can be applied (maxillary sinus lifts, bone grafts, dental nerve lateralised, etc..) that will provide the necessary bone in order to place the implants:
- The implementation of advanced implant techniques using maxillary sinus elevation, bone grafting or making lateralizations to the dental nerve, allow us to increase the amount of bone in the place where the implants will be placed.
- The placement or zygomatic implants shortens the waiting time by avoiding the placement of bone grafts in cases of large maxillary atrophy. They anchor 2 to 4 large implants in the cheek bone, providing a strong and secure support which will enable us to make a predictable dental rehabilitation with fixed teeth.
Once the teeth are in place, it is important to look after
them for the treatment to last. Oral hygiene must be rigorous and patients must go to the follow-up reviews to monitor the status of the implants and prostheses. At first this will be every 6 months and then annually.
Immediate Postsurgical Prosthesis
In Clinica Kranion it is possible to have the implants and dentures in the same session following the TEETH IN AN HOUR®
HOUR concept, without having to wait 4 to 6 months for the integration between the first and second phases as seen in the traditional technique. This is possible through introducing our new centre and Nobel GuideTM
system that allows a quick and easy implant treatment, with fixed teeth and aesthetics right there and then.
In this system, the radiographic computerised tomography (CT) scan of the patient is processed by a computer program that generates a three-dimensional view of the jawbone, allowing us to see if the patient is eligible for this technique and indicating in advance where the implants will be placed in order to have a prosthesis prepared, whether temporarily or permanently, so that it can placed as soon as the procedure has finished. (More information is available in: