Mini Dental Implant
What do you do when its Friday afternoon and this walks in with a crying patient attached to it?
Well I looked in the tool box and thankfully I had a stash. No not anything illegal but a stash of Intra Lock Mini Dental Implants from Shatkin FIRST Labs. Jay Moore (the well respected and highly knowledgeable sales manager) had just sent me 24 mini implants in the 'Cash for Clunkers' trade in program.
The patient stated that the bridge was 'slightly decayed' for a while and that she had noticed some movement over the past few months. Well from where I was sitting I don't know where the 'slightly decayed' came from…..it looked more like a stroll down the street in Anbar Province Iraq.
I was able to tack mush to mush and took a pre op pan xray
Of course I was drooling over the thoughts of Mini Implants everywhere for this patient! But I had to slow down and go over all the options from
1. Do nothing…not really an option….but I have heard that patients can get creative with Super Glue!
2. Extract and recommend a denture or partial.
3. Extract and implants for an over-denture or implants and a fixed bridge.
4. Extract and mini dental implants for a fixed bridge or mini implant retained full denture.
To my surprise the patient had done her homework and had come to see us specifically for mini dental implants and a mini implant bridge.
I told her lets's slow it down a bit. How about we make it the first goal to take out the broken root tips and preserve as much bone as possible with some peritomes(dental instruments to extract teeth with less trauma to the facial bone). Then see about placing some mini dental implants and for certain figure out how to make her a temporary bridge to wear while some healing occurred.
Minis all went in as planned. She will return in a few weeks for a tissue check and I will update the photos.
iCAT CT scan of mini dental implants in place for a fixed bridge
Post operative pan xray of mini dental implant in upper jaw for fixed bridge