New Implant Therapy Developed (Taken from the CDA Journal, November 2011)
With a swell in the older adult population, more and more people are facing a reduced quality of life due to edentulism. It is estimated that 37 million Americans will need dentures by 2020.
According to clinical studies, in a comparison of patients who had implant therapy, they fared better than their denture-wearing counterparts who showed only a minor improvement in their quality of life. Denture-wearers reported discomfort, poor stability, pain, and trouble eating.
In a report recently published in an issue of the Journal of Oral Implantology, there is an alternative treatment to dentures: “All-on-Four” therapy. This approach uses four implants to support a fixed prosthesis and the patient’s new teeth can be put in place the day of surgery.
In the All-on-Four approach, two implants are placed near the front and two implants are placed near the back of the dental area. These implants support a fixed, full-arch prosthesis that is put in place the same day as the surgery.
The authors evaluated the survival of the All-in-Four treatment for a 29-month period using the NobelActive implant from Sweden’s Nobel Biocare, according to a news release. This implant features a tapered body and variable thread design. Other All-on-Four implant designs have reported high survival rates between 92 percent and 100 percent.
In the study, 165 participants received 708 implants. (The mean age was 59.) No significant difference was found between the survival rates of implants in the maxilla and mandible jaws. The survival rate was 99.6 percent, with only three implants failing.
CDA JOURNAL, VOL 39, #11, NOV 2011, p783