A Comprehensive Guide to All on Four Implants, PART 2

This four-part article series takes an in-depth look at All-on-Four dental implants, what they are and the various benefits they offer over removable dentures and traditional dental implant protocols.

Welcome back to our four-part article series on All on Four implants. In our previous post, we provided an introduction to this advanced surgical protocol for fixed oral rehabilitation and ended off with a brief discussion on the differences between All on Four implants and removable dentures; an archaic and out-dated dental technology. In this article, we shall take a closer look at the benefits and advantages of All on Four implants over dentures and why any patient who desperately requires a new set of teeth should opt for the fixed and non-removable solution afforded by the former.

Key Differences Between All on Four Implants and Removable Dentures

As opposed to false teeth, or removable dentures, the All on Four surgical protocol gives patients a complete set of permanent teeth that look, function and feel like natural teeth. The All on Four prosthetic bridge:

• Is fixed and non-removable and won’t shift around or fall out.
• Is brushed, flossed and cared for just like natural teeth.
• Doesn’t need to be removed after meals or at nighttime for cleaning.
• Is fixed in place by dental implants and so doesn’t require messy, sticky adhesives.
• Is supported entirely by the jaw bone and not the underlying soft tissue. As such, All on Four implants don’t cause any pain, inflammation and discomfort of the gums.
• Does not necessitate a constant investment in anesthetic gels in order to combat the pain caused by dentures pressing down on and rubbing against the gums.
• Enables patients to experience their food properly: taste, texture and temperature!
• Does not trigger the gag reflex.
• Does not harbor food and bacteria, causing bad breath.
• Enables patients to bite down with a strong natural force, allowing them to eat all the foods they love and need to remain strong and healthy.
• All on Four implants promote good jaw bone health, thus preserving a patient’s youthful smile aesthetics.
• Without the risk of denture slippage and the unnatural aesthetics caused by bulky dentures pushing against the lips from inside the mouth, All on Four implants give patients a much more beautiful and confident smile.
• All on Four implants last decades and even a lifetime without the need for restoration and replacement.
• Dentures need to be refitted every few years or so as a result of loss of bone volume in the jaw (see image below).
  
  

For all these reasons and more, All on Four implants constitute a much smarter investment, not only in your oral health, but in your overall quality of life too. In order to fully appreciate many of the benefits offered by All on Four implants, one needs to understand the consequences of allowing missing teeth to go without replacement…

All on Four Implants: The Importance of Replacing Missing Teeth

Many patients only think about their appearance when it comes to replacing a tooth or several teeth that have gone missing. They think that as long as their replacement teeth look okay and work well enough to allow them to eat, then it’s worth the money they paid. But technologies such as removable dentures only replace the visible portion of missing teeth: the crowns. But the roots of the teeth play an essential role in keeping the underlying jaw bone stimulated and healthy. Without them, this hard tissue atrophies from disuse and wastes away. Jaw bone atrophy:

- Has a substantial aging effect upon one’s natural facial contours,

- Upsets dental stability along the tooth row, increasing your chance of losing more teeth,

- A greater risk of bacterial infection to your entire mouth,

- Can render the success of dental implant surgery doubtful.

Thankfully, the loss of bone volume consistently seen in patients who had gone without teeth and/or with dentures for many years could be overcome by All on Four implants. And in our next article installment, we’ll discuss exactly how!

All on Four Implants: Stay Tuned

To find out how All on Four implants can bypass the need for bone grafting surgery and what the benefits of this are, stay tuned for the third installment of this four-part article series.