When dentures have been worn for a long period of time the bone supporting then tends to resorb ( disappear). This means that many patients who have worn dentures for many years find they do not remain stable. That is the dentures move. Eating many types of food is difficult or impossible. Despite new dentures this problem continues.

The advent of dental implants has been able to totally solve this problem for most patients.

The implant-supported denture is stable, very retentive and enables most patients to eat and chew the kinds of food they haven’t eaten in years. In some patients biting into an apple is now the norm rather than a wish.

Some patients may require a bone graft to create sufficient bone to place the implants, this now uncommon. The procedure for implant-retained dentures is as follows and I have included some x-rays and photos from my casebook. All of my patients who have undergone this type of treatment wondered why they didn’t do it sooner and I have no patients who have not been more than happy with the end result.

The technique is similar for both the top and bottom jaws. The bottom jaw (mandible) is usually more straight forward than the upper jaw (maxilla). The maxilla requires a minimum of four implants.

The process starts with having the implants placed in the bone. This generally done either under deep sedation or general anesthesia and consists in having precision drilled holes into the bone. The implants are placed into these and the area allowed to heal. The implants may take up to 20 weeks to fully integrate – this is the time taken for the bone to join to the implants and lock them in.

The “locator tops” are placed on the implants instead of the healing caps. This completes the surgical side of the process.

The dentures then have to be adapted with a press stud like tops so they can clip to the locator tops. Whether you need new dentures or not needs to be discussed with the correctly qualified dental technician or your dentist. Once the dentures have been fitted, the dentures will stay in the mouth unless unclipped by you. Needless to say the usual denture hygiene needs to be undertaken. Remember this type of implant retained denture is like any other denture and is not a permanent fixtures. If you want permanent fixtures this is a different process but can be accomplished. The implants should last many years if not indefinitely.