Dental Implant Treatment - Phase I
It is tempting for dentists to shortcut this critical planning in a desire to move quickly into implant treatment. But high-quality long-lasting results depend on careful planning and preparation.
In Phase I we accomplish the following tasks. Not all of these will be required for each patient - it depends on the complexity of your case and your own individual needs. If you do not need extractions, for example, some of these steps may not be required:
- Complete medical history and review.
- Facial and dental analysis.
- Diagnostic facial and dental photography.
- Coordination of the interdisciplinary treatment team.
- Study models of your teeth mounted on a dental articulator using a TMJ facebow, in order to study the proper alignment of your teeth with your face and bony skeleton.
- Meet with the master dental technician who will custom fabricate your dental prostheses.
- Make alveoloplasty surgical guides to facilitate the shaping of your existing underlying bone, to better receive dental implants and/or bone grafts. These guides will be used at the time of surgery so that the implants are given the optimum position for your situation.
- Make alveoloplasty models, which are redlined to assist the surgeon in visualizing the shape of the upper and lower jaws.
- Obtain and analyze three-dimensional cone beam CT scans of your upper and lower jaws.
- Review the oral radiologist's reports of your CT scans to screen for any underlying pathology that may be present in your face or jaws.
- Fabricate the prototype dentures, so that you will never be without teeh during this entire process. This will be used as an architectural guideline as you move forward into implant-supported restorations.
- The prototype denture will also be converted into a CT scan guide (Chal-Hatcher guide) and later into a surgical guide for the placement of your dental implants.
- Following any extraction surgery, there will be one or more soft relines done inside your prototype denture.
- Laboratory hard reline in prototype denture as required.
Phase II is the treatment of the mandibular (lower) arch.
Phase III is the treatment of the maxillary (upper) arch.
