Worried about All on 4 implants

thestens

i have had trouble with my teeth for many years, mainly due to gum disease, despite good dental hygiene and care from myself, my dentist and the dental hospital. Now my top front three teeth are extremely loose so I can't bite, I have an infection in a top back tooth with a root canal filling, several top teeth are missing and several others are mobile. According to the dentist who is going to do my implants, only two top teeth are viable long term. Apart from the front teeth, which definitely have to go, the rest aren't bothering me. The bottom teeth are OK, gum disease controlled.
I've seen several dentists about implants and after x rays and 3d scans have been told the best option is to have all top teeth out and All on 4 implants fitted. I have agreed to this at the end of June. However, I'm getting cold feet. I'm 64 and worry about how long they will last and what will happen if they fail.
I had a partial denture some years ago before I had a bridge fitted and hated it so don't think a denture is an option. But then if I had just the loose front teeth out should I try one again before going for the implants? Maybe they've improved in the last 15 years?
How natural do All on 4 teeth feel? Anyone had experience of them or any advice please?

brook2jack

Hopefully you are aware that implants can be lost to gum disease as easily , if not more easily, than your own teeth. So your first order of priority is to make your mouth as healthy as possible for implants. If you smoke , stop now. If you have diabetes get it under good control. Your cleaning regime will have to be meticulous.

The likelihood is that you will have to wear a denture of some sort during the healing phase of your implant treatment unless they are planning immediate loading.

The difficulty is if you have teeth out and a denture the bone will shrink and may make implant treatment more complex at a later date.

Most people find implant supported dentures or all on fours much more comfortable to wear and more " normal feeling" than ordinary dentures which are always a compromise.

So long as your treatment is designed to make cleaning of the implants easy and you maintain them and your remaining teeth well implant treatment has a good long term prognosis ...... But..... It will need maintaining and bits will need replacing in the future so make sure you budget for that and a small number of implants do fail. You need to ask your implantologist about this.

AbbieCadabra

all on 4 is usually the 'teeth in a day' option where mini-implants are fitted & your final fixed denture done all on the same day.

i was looking at this too, the cost put me off instantly, plus the failure rate for mini implants & instant loading is higher than having full size implants then allow healing & integration into the bone for approx. 3 months before final denture is fitted.

i was also worried about any fixed option due to cleaning. no matter how careful & thorough, i don't see how you can be sure you're cleaning as well as a denture that can be removed for cleaning, & allow full access to clean the implants too.

i went for implant retained denture option. it took just over a year from first implants to final denture, but i did have some issues that aren't the usual to get over (& a few mishaps thrown in for good measure!). i love the look & feel of the end result, no issues with eating anything, biting into an apple again for the first time in 20 years took some getting used to!

i'm happy to go into further detail if you'd like to send me a message