Abstract
Currently, there are several bone augmentation techniques which are widely used for patients with atrophied alveolar bones in order to gain the quantity of bone required to apply dental implants. Although effective, a major disadvantage of such techniques is that they inevitably involve a considerable amount of stress for both the patient and doctors performing the procedure. As an alternative, there has been a recent trend for doctors to apply short implant placements which are significantly less invasive than using bone augmentation techniques. However, in the case of patients with larger defects such as full edentulous jaws, short implant application requires the placing of a larger number of implants than in procedures which use standard length implants for the prosthetic to be biomechanically sound. Until a few years ago, the fabrication process for such prosthetics demanded a high level of skill on part of the technician due to the greater amount of soldering being required for a prosthetic superstructure large enough to accommodate the required number of implants. Furthermore, the greater use of costly rare metals means a significantly increased financial burden for patients. In light of the above, the Procera' Implant Bridge system has several advantages. The most significant of which is that it guarantees less deformation of finished prosthetics than those manufactured with conventional casting techniques. The system greatly simplifies the manufacturing process by enabling individual prosthetics to be milled from titanium blocks using computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems. This means that prosthetics can be produced at lower cost yet with higher degrees of consistency and precision. Additionally, prosthetics made using the CAD/CAM systems have a highly durable single-piece structure with abutments already integrated into the frame. In this article, I will suggest the application of short implant placements and the Procera' Implant Bridge system as an option for full edentulous patients by means of offering specific examples of cases which resulted in high aesthetic outcomes and precise fitting of the dental prosthetic. The following are the most significant characteristics of the procedure: 1. Reduction of the amount of stress involved for both dental clinicians and patients. 2. Simplification of the manufacturing process which leads to cost-reduction. In view of these results, I posit that in the near future, this method will become one of the standard options for applying dental implants for full edentulous patients.
