Case Details
A female patient has been very unfortunate with her lower complete denture that she currently wears since they don’t stay on in her mouth. She states that she cannot use them when she eats and that it moves around in her mouth when she speaks. She says she is looking for a more stable prosthesis and also staying within a budget that she is comfortable with. Regrettably, her alveolar ridge for her lower arch has been severely resorbed to where the width of her alveolar ridge has become “paper thin”. The overall width for the lower arch is at approximately 3 mm and with some areas along the ridge at 1 -2 mm. Therefore, the patient will require a bone augmentation procedure in order to be able to receive dental implants. A ridge splitting procedure (RSP) is performed along with bone expansion to support 4 endosteal standard size dental implants at selected areas. After healing has occurred, the patient was extremely happy that she was finally able to wear her lower implant overdenture oral prosthesis without all of the problems that she use to have.
Before
After
Before
After
Description: A RSP is performed from one side to the opposite side at the lower arch. After deep saw cuts are made into the bone the bone is expanded but very delicately since the bone in this region is very rigid and dense. After bone expansion has been implemented, 4 standard size implants are immediately placed with the desired primary stability.
Before
After
Description: After osseointegration (fusing of the implants to the bone) has occurred, 4 locator abutments are connected to the implants. Next, an implant overdenture oral prosthesis is fabricated which attaches to the abutments that include housing retention caps within the overdenture.
