‘All-On-Four’

This patient is one of our favorites! When he first came in and started talking with Dr. Bishop, we realized that he needed a lot of work on his upper teeth. He’d recently had surgeries on his back, and the idea of sitting in the dental chair for lots of visits was not appealing to him. We looked at his bone and sinuses, and it was going to be a long journey to replace the broken teeth and use implants to replace the missing teeth on the upper left.

One of the best things about a hybrid or ‘All-on-Four’ is the ability to cantilever a molar off of an implant placed at the second premolar position, or one tooth behind the implant. This enables us to do what would not have been possible for this patient – to replace the missing second premolar and molar behind it using an angled implant and upper hybrid.

The best part of the discussion with the patient was letting him know that he would not leave without teeth – we could do the temporaries the same day! He was overjoyed, and said his wife married him for his smile and he didn’t want her to see him without teeth!

Sadly, after a few months, we had some complications with the implant on the upper right posterior. The patient’s temporary broke and the implant did not integrate. We always try to encourage patients that the temporary teeth are ‘look good’ teeth, not ‘eat good’ teeth – but because they are so strong, and it is a full 3 months, often it can be hard to remember how important those instructions are! So we had to go back, perform a lateral window sinus lift, and place two more implants in the right posterior. Thankfully, those healed great and we were able to get all of his implants hooked up to his final Zirconia hybrid!

Thanks for trusting us with your smile, bite, function, and confidence! For more information about implants, options for restoring your smile, or the differences between fixed and removable implant solutions, follow me on Instagram @FantaskiSmiles and send a DM with any questions — or to schedule a consultation!