The Dental Implant Costs for Complete Oral Rehabilitation: Old Implant Techniques Versus the Breakthrough ‘All-on-4’, PART 3

This article, part 3 of 3, explores the cost differences between traditional dental implant techniques and the innovative ‘All-on-4’ protocol for complete oral rehabilitation.

In this, the third and final installment of a three part series, we shall investigate how the ‘All-on-4’ almost always bypasses one of the greatest challenges facing traditional dental implant techniques - the need for bone grafting surgery - and how this can afford patients staggering savings on dental implants costs.

Dental Implants Costs and the Need for Bone Grafting

It is a great irony that the patients who most require dental implants frequently cannot have them placed due to the advanced loss of bone tissue in the jaw. You see, when a tooth goes missing, the jaw bone that previously supported the root loses that important source of stimulation provided by the mechanical forces associated with grinding, chewing and biting. Just like a muscle left without exercise, the bone tissue begins to atrophy and waste away causing massive problems to the neighboring teeth.

For patients that have lost a substantial number of their natural teeth and/or who have been wearing removable dentures for a number of years, bone loss in the jaw can make their journey to oral rehabilitation using dental implants a much longer, more painful and expensive one. Dental implants costs are one thing to consider, especially when as many as 20 are required for traditional placement protocol, but bone grafting surgery as well?

Bone grafting is used to augment and encourage the growth of new and healthy hard tissue in the jaw. Once healing has successfully occurred, a skilled and qualified dentist can then place dental implants because now there is sufficient bone volume to provide the necessary support. So what’s the problem with this? Well, first of all, bone grafting surgery is invasive and causes quite a bit of pain and discomfort for the patient. Secondly, it is expensive – incurring substantial dental implants costs - and lastly, it requires months of healing before dental implants can be placed.

Dental Implants Costs with the ‘All-on-4’: Bypassing the Need for Bone Grafting

Owing to the precise positioning and angulation of only four dental implants in regions of the jaw that are more resistant to atrophy, a skilled and qualified dentist is able to give patients a new set of non-removable teeth, almost never with the need for bone grafting surgery beforehand. And this translates into fantastic savings on dental implants cost. These are not only financial dental implants costs savings, but savings on inconvenience, time, months in recovery and all the associated pain and discomfort. In fact, with the ‘All-on-4’ protocol, patients are able to walk into the dental implant facility – edentulous or near-edentulous - in the morning and out again in the afternoon with a brand new set of non-removable, immediately functional and highly aesthetic teeth!

Dental Implants Costs with the ‘All-on-4’: A Final Note

By requiring only 8 implants in total, a single surgery for placement and avoiding the need for bone grafting surgery (even in patients presenting with advanced bone loss in the jaw) the ‘All-on-4’ affords patients massive savings on dental implants costs, time, convenience, pain and discomfort.