Implant Overdentures: What You Need to Know

Continuing Education Credits:
1 CEU (Continuing Education Unit)

Course Presenter(s):
Murray Arlin, DDS, dip. Perio., FRCD


Date Added:
07/05/2016

Course Description:

Implant Dentistry has evolved from the original concept of primarily treating the edentulous mandible with a retrievable fixed prosthesis. Today most dental implant cases involve partially edentulous situations treated with fixed prosthetic solutions. However the fully edentulous mandible and maxilla still comprise an important subset of our patients, and techniques for utilizing fixed and removable full arch prostheses have evolved to restore both arches. The relative pros and cons when comparing the fixed vs removable prosthetic treatment can be very significant. In particular when treating the fully edentulous maxilla, the challenges with a full arch fixed prosthesis can be formidable. These challenges have fostered the development of the full arch maxillary removable prosthesis option, and in the full maxillary arch, restoration with the “splinted bar-overdenture” design has often been anecdotally suggested. The premise for this design was that supposedly that the splinting of the implants would be necessary to help counteract potential biomechanical overload of the implants that often were placed with a compromised angulation and often in compromised bone quality and quantity. As compared to the unsplinted over-denture design, the “bar-overdenture” design itself presents with challenges such as increased expense, technical difficulty, need for more vertical dimension, difficulty in hygiene access and frequent occurrence of gingival hyperplasia. Unfortunately there have been very few publications on the survival and success of unsplinted full maxillary overdenture cases. However the author’s personal statistical results will demonstrate a very high survival rate with this technique in following over 300 implants used for this application. This presentation will rationalize the treatment options available and demonstrate the advantages of the unsplinted full maxillary arch overdenture design.

Learning Objectives: