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Mark Kent Dental Surgeries

Replacing a Full Set of Teeth

The All-on-4 technique (also sometimes called ‘teeth-in-a-day’ or ‘same-day-smile’) is a brilliantly simple approach to replacing a full denture, or most of the teeth in the upper or lower jaw. The technique usually uses four, but sometimes five or six implants to support a fixed bridge replacing 10-12 teeth.

The implants are often placed at the same time as failing teeth are removed. In our practice in conjunction with Dawood and Tanner this is straightforward, routine, and predictable, even for older patients or for patients with very little bone. We have been performing treatment of this kind for over 10 years.

Full arch bridge on 5 implants – more bone available

2-3 implants are positioned towards the front of the jaw, and the back implants are tilted to avoid the sinus in the upper jaw, and to avoid the nerve supply to the lip in the lower jaw. The technique is extremely useful where there is only a little bone available, and often eliminates the need to carry out complex graft surgery.

Our standard approach is to place the implants in the course of a surgery lasting just 30 -45 minutes; soon after, a simple ‘immediate’ resin bridge is fitted. This bridge is generally replaced with a more robust definitive bridge some months (or years) later, but sometimes if there is sufficient space to make a robust resin bridge, the resin bridge may be used for extended periods.

Patients generally leave the practice with their resin bridge in place. This treatment can be made even more comfortable for the patient by using a sophisticated Guided Surgery approach, in which implant positions are predetermined using 3D scanning and special software, such as Nobel Guide or Simplant. Guided surgery allows us to pre-prepare many aspects of the treatment in advance so that even complex surgery can often be completed in just 30 minutes or so, as the implants are quickly and precisely positioned directly into position with minimal surgery.

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