This patient used to have a bridge replacing three of his front incisor teeth. Eventually the bridge failed and the teeth had to be extracted. A removable plastic denture was made for the patient, but he disliked the feeling of having something in his mouth and he also did not like the fact that the teeth had to be removed after eating for cleaning and at night whilst sleeping.
The patient was subsequently referred to James to explore whether it would be possible to replace the missing teeth with dental implants instead of a denture. The patient wanted to have natural looking, fixed teeth so that he would feel more confident and be able to eat whatever he wanted without having to worry about loose dentures. Having ensured that the patient’s mouth was healthy, James placed 2 Straumann Dental Implants along with some bone augmentation. The implants were left to heal for 8 weeks after which a fixed prototype bridge was made. The patient was able to dispose of his denture at this point but he wore the prototype bridge for several months to enable the gums to mature and form a pleasing appearance. It also enabled the patient to try out the appearance of the teeth and to see how his speech was with the bridge. Once we were happy with this the final porcelain bridge was made and fixed to the implants
To ensure easy maintenance of the bridge in the future, James placed the 2 implants so that the bridge could be “Screw retained”. This means that the bridge is screwed directly into the implants without the need for any cement. If the patient ever needed to have his implants thoroughly cleaned by the hygienist, then the bridge can simply be unscrewed without the need for any local anaesthetic and then put back on afterwards. Due to the patient’s bite, the back of his bridge was made in metal to ensure strength and accuracy. This is not usually required but it is not visible to anyone.
