All-on-4 Dental Implants in Park City, UT

What is an All-on-4 Implant Denture?

Dental implants are small posts inserted into the jawbone that mimic the lost roots of teeth. Traditionally, dental implant posts are positioned vertically along the jawline to support an entire denture. The All-on-4 system relies on the naturally denser portions of the jaw to provide adequate stability for a full denture. This means people are able to fully restore their smiles without the need for invasive preparatory tissue grafting procedures that may be necessary prior to placing a traditional implant denture.

What Should I Expect from All-on-4 Dentures Placement?

Like other implant supported tooth replacement plans, an All-on-4 denture restoration requires several phases of treatment. We’ll begin by assessing your oral and overall health and creating a detailed treatment plan. In most cases, patients who choose All-on-4 implant dentures do not need to receive preparatory bone or soft tissue grafts, but we may need to perform other preparatory treatments like tooth extractions or gum disease therapy.

Once your smile is ready for treatment and we have a plan in place, we begin the implant placement process. This is what sets All-on-4 apart from traditional implant dentures. Two dental implant posts are positioned vertically into the jaw to support the front of the denture. Then, the other two implants are positioned diagonally from the back of the mouth into the front to support the back of the denture. This allows us to use the densest portion of the jaw to support the full weight of your tooth replacement prosthetic.

In most cases, we will provide a temporary prosthetic right away. Once your implants are fused and the surgical site has healed, we will design your final, custom restoration that will be crafted from quality materials in our dental lab. Once the final denture is complete, you’ll return to the dental office where we will anchor your flawless new prosthetic to the implants, recreating your beautiful smile.

What are the Benefits of All-on-4 Dentures?

There are many benefits to All-on-4 dentures, including:

• Compared with traditional, removable dentures, they offer significantly more stability, restoring about 70% of healthy chewing function compared with only 20% restoration with traditional dentures.
• Compared with traditional, implant dentures, the All-on-4 procedure can be significantly less invasive, allowing more people to successfully complete the dental implant placement and restoration process.
• All-on-4 implant dentures have a 90% or higher rate of success after 20 years, and many people can maintain the same All-on-4 dentures for the rest of their lives.

All-on-4 FAQs

Dr. Cody Calderwood is the only dentist in the area that will both place and restore your dental implants; in other words, the entire process is performed start to finish at one location! Not only is this more convenient, but it also means Dr. Calderwood will be able to answer any questions you might have about the All-on-4 process. Below are just some examples of what many patients ask; you can raise your own concerns during your dental implant consultation (or at any other point in the process).

Will All-on-4 Look Natural?

Your skin tone, age, facial features and general personality all need to be considered when designing and shading the false teeth that your implants will be support. As someone who has spent a lot of time studying cosmetic dentistry as well as dental implants, Dr. Calderwood is well equipped to select the right size, shape and color for your smile. We will make sure that you are pleased with how your final set of teeth looks before we complete the process. There are cases where patients have said that their new teeth are more dazzling than their natural ones were!

What Makes All-on-4 Different Than Dentures?

Traditional dentures always need to be removed to be cleaned, but All-on-4 implants can remain in your mouth, where it’s possible to brush them as if they were your original teeth. Also, since dental implants permanently secure your teeth to your gums, you won’t need to rely on a messy, sticky adhesive to prevent slipping.

In general, it’s more comfortable when teeth rest on dental implants than on the gums. Your bite will also have increased force, to the point where you’ll be able to enjoy all of your favorite foods again. Finally, like any kind of restoration procedure that uses dental implants, the All-on-4 procedure can help prevent your jawbone from deteriorating.

What are the Different Steps of the All-on-4 Process?

Your procedure might be different than another patient’s procedure depending on the state of your mouth and what sort of treatments you need in addition to the implant surgery. A rough timeline might look like this:

• One to two visits for consultation and/or to take X-rays and impressions.
• One visit to put the implants in place and (typically) receive temporary dentures; you might also have remaining teeth extracted at this point.
• Two post-operative visits (or however many we think you need.)
• One visit after about four months (following the surgery) to take impressions for your permanent dentures
• One visit after about six months (following the surgery) to receive a permanent set of teeth.

Can the All-on-4 Procedure Be Performed on the Upper and Lower Arches at Once?

While All-on-4 can be used to replace either arch separately, it can be used to repair both at once. If you still have teeth remaining on one arch but feel that you’re likely to need two dentures in the near future anyway, we can perform the necessary extractions and potentially save you time and money – not to mention create better results.