Does anyone know what mini dental implants for dentures are and the procedure and expense?

Mini dental implants are about half the size of regular implants. They are drilled into your jaw bone on the lower with a local (Novacaine). Then they retrofit your denture to accept the implant. At my dentist, he charges $1200 per arch, but says they are for older patients that don't want to spend the money on regular implants. Here is a link.


http://www.imtec.com/demo/patientsguide1...

Does anyone know what mini dental implants for dentures are and the procedure and expense?
An implant for dentures is to hold the denture firmly in the mouth instead of adhesives or suction to keep it in the mouth. Usually the dentist/oral surgeon places however many implants that they think you will need to hold an overdenture as it is called in place. The implants is placed in your bone and then a healing cap is placed on top for several months. They take impressions for the denture as it will in essence snap onto the implants the dentist has placed. Say for example you are going to get a lower denture the doc may place from two to four implants depending on your mouth. The lower denture will then snap on with the help of "O" rings to keep it snug. The procedure is: You will go to your dentist to have an evaluation to see if you have enough bone for the implants to be placed in. If you do, then they will make an app. for you to have them placed. They will make a small cut in the gum tissue where they want to place the implant. Then they will drill into the bone, and place the implant in the hole they drilled. At this point they will suture the areas closed, and allow them to heal for several weeks (6) then you will go back and they will again expose the implant and place a healing cap, the healing cap basically screws right onto the implant. The healing cap is to make sure the gum tissue does not close over the implant and it remains exposed. These are left in place for four to six months depending on the doc doing the work. After the healing caps are removed they will place your perm. denture, showing you how to fit it correctley, how it snaps into place, and proper care and maintenance. Now during this time you will have impressions made, and they will keep watch via x-rays on the implants to be sure that the bone is healing around them and that your body is not rejecting them. There are some dentists that are skipping the closing over phase and placing the healing caps directly on the implant when you have it placed. I have had two implants and they did as I described above, waiting about six weeks before placing the healing caps. I don't know if one is better then another, I just know in my case they have worked out great. In my case instead of an overdenture I have individual crowns placed over the two implants. They are in different areas of my mouth. People are thrilled with implants, then placed with an overdenture. Esp. on the lower where people lose more bone and dentures or partials never seem to fit well. With the implant procedure the partial/denture stays firmly in the mouth without slipping around. Now the cost, it is expensive. For my two implants, plus doc's time, and the cost of the perm. crowns was about five thousand. This is with me only paying for the price of one implant as the oral surgeon gave me a fifty-percent discount. I still had to pay for both of the crowns. So with the cost of implants and an overdenture I am est. that it will prob. cost you around 5-8 thousand, maybe more, maybe less depending on where you live. I had an oral surgeon do mine, he is a specialist, so of course this cost more. The main thing was IV sedation. But you don't have to have IV sedation they can do all of implant surgery with local anesth. Also many general dentists place implants all of the time, you don't nec. have to see an oral surgeon. Ask around in your area for a good implant doctor, then you can get prices and opinions. Also note that the expense will go up if you have existing teeth that need to be extracted or need work before you do a denture. I know all of this sound very painful and overwhelming, well let me tell you that I had NO pain at all from this procedure. I am in the dental profession and truely expected some discomfort, but I never had any. I know that this sounds hard to believe, but I mean it. I was asleep when he did most of this, but as far as the post-healing phase, I had no discomfort whatsoever. It sounds like the most grusome procdure, right? But it was a breeze, if you decide to go this way you will be so pleased. Now for the disclaimer, not everyone can benefit from implants, if you have severe bone loss, are a smoker, or have a history of rejection then they may not work. But if you can do it go for it you will be so happy that you did.