Some of you may have heard of short dental implants. They have been around for quite some time in fact. At the Same Day Teeth Suite, we mainly use them when we want to avoid nerve damage if people have thinner bone or the clinical situation makes this the best option. Short implants are not for everyone, but they are an option we will consider following a comprehensive assessment, diagnostics and scans.
Depending on how each dentist works, short dental implants are used in a particular area of the mouth, such as the lower back molar, where short dental implants are the best solution. The dentist will be the judge of this of course, and they will carefully assess your case and decide the best treatment for your needs.
When do I need short dental implants?
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Not Enough Vertical Height
There are many cases where a patient does not have enough vertical height in their jaw to place dental implants. This could be because their lower jaw has shrunk in height, and therefore by placing an implant the dentist could hit nerves or muscles.
To avoid this situation in some of these cases, we here at Same Day Teeth Suite in Leicester use very short implants. These implants have been surface-treated to allow an excellent integration of the bone and so no vital structures are damaged. This is a much-preferred treatment that provides us with a great solution when we have to fit a tooth in these difficult areas.
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Not Enough Bone
The same also applies in upper mouth cases where a patient does not have enough bone to place an implant in the posterior region, either because they don’t have enough vertical height of bone to support it, the sinus is very close, or both.
Ιn these cases, the patient would need to have some form of sinus lift (artificial bone or bovine bone placed in the sinus) in order to place a dental implant without invading the sinus area in the process.
The above missing tooth was replaced using a short dental implant.
Again, thanks to improvements in dental implant technology, a sinus lift can be avoided in most cases. How? By placing short implants, the sinus area is safe making a sinus lift a rather long forgotten option. What is more, with short implants we can integrate for 2 months before placing a crown on the implant.
Other reasons for using short implants include some patients who have a very small jaw with nerves so close to the surface that it is almost certain that any other treatment besides short implants would probably lead to a failure and nerve damage. Of course, nerve re-positioning is an option, but there are patients that do not wish to opt for this alternative.
No matter how one sees it, if you do not have enough vertical bone for dental implants and want to avoid forms of bone grafting treatment, short dental implants can be an ideal solution.
Want to know whether you are well-suited for dental implants? Take the Same Day Teeth Test! and we will assess your suitability.