Posted by writeradmin
I had a dental bridge anchored to my canine teeth that replaced all of my front four teeth. Unfortunately, the canines became so loose that they had to be extracted. I had the teeth replaced again with a parital dental done by Comfort Dental. I was completely miserable with that replacement so I went back. They are now suggesting I replace all of my upper with dental implants and they’ll use mini implants to save me money. I’m told the expected longevity on that is ten years. Because of my experience with the partial I decided to get a second opinion. I went to see a dentist in the area. His plan is so vastly different that now I’m a bit confused as to what to do.
His suggestion is not to extract any more teeth but to do another implant bridge using dental implants for the canines to anchor the teeth as well as one additional implant in the middle of the bridge. These would be full sized implants, not mini ones. His plan is much more expensive.
The money aspect makes me lean toward Comfort Dental, but I’m wary of their advice after the last issue. What do you think? You have no skin in the game so I feel like you will be impartial.
Grant
Dear Grant,
I’m glad you wrote. Let’s start with what comfort dental suggested. First, using your canines as anchor teeth, which most dentists call abutment teeth, was a bad idea without some additional support. Here is why.
In a conventional bridge, the replacement tooth is placed directly between the two abutments, such as is illustrated in the image directly above. This is secure and does not place any twisting forces on the abutment teeth.
What comfort dental did, is place the bridge like the picture to the left. The stress on the incisal edges results in a twisting force of your abutment teeth. It would not take long before these became loose, as is what happened in your case.
While dental implants have a stronger hold, it still would not be adequate without adding a third implant in the middle of the bridge. Not only does this stabilize the teeth, it will protect the abutment teeth from the twisting forces. In fact, if well taken care of, this can last you a lifetime.
With Comfort Dental’s plan, you are not only extracting healthy teeth, you are not going to have the longevity on the plan they promised. Mini dental implants are not designed to adequately support a dental crown. They are not strong enough for that. Instead, they are meant to stabalize something like a complete denture.
Giving them ten years is generous. But, for argument’s sake, let’s say that they do. Then, in ten years they fail. That is not a simple thing. You cannot just replace them. When they are removed they will take bone structure with them. This means you will need an additional procedure of bone grafting to build that lost bone back up before you can even think about replacing the implants.
My opinion is that you will be better served the the other dentist’s plan.
This blog is brought to you by Youngville, LA Dentist Dr. John Theriot.