At The Maryland Center for Oral Surgery and Dental Implants, we provide patients with lasting and attractive solutions for tooth replacement. While we typically recommend dental implants, there are actually several variations of this procedure.

You may be familiar with one of the most heavily promoted options in Baltimore, All-on-4 ®:

  • Similar to a typical dental implant procedure, All-on-4 uses dental implants which serve as artificial tooth roots to anchor a prosthetic in place.
  • Most non-removable options for replacing all of the teeth in one arch require five or more dental implants. However, with All-on-4, the surgeon anchors the entire arch of prosthetic teeth to only four dental implants.
  • The dental implants in All-on-4 are angled to provide greater strength and support within the jawbone.

Though All-on-4 has grown in notoriety as a solution to meet the needs of almost all patients who need complete tooth replacement, we at The Maryland Center are more cautious about our recommendation, as All-on-4 isn’t right for everyone.

Conditions for All-on-4

For patients in the Baltimore area, including Hunt Valley, Bel Air, and Owings Mill, “Teeth in a Day” procedures with dental implants offer seamless and essential improvement to oral health. The concept of All-on-4 is attractive: the ability to remove a full set of unhealthy teeth and to have a new, strong, and aesthetically pleasing set almost immediately.

However, not every patient should rely on only four dental implants to support an entire arch of teeth. These acrylic prostheses will be bearing a big load: chewing, grinding, and all of the same functionality you would expect from your natural teeth. Your new teeth must have the strength and stability they require.

The Maryland Center recommends more than four dental implants for full arch replacements when:

  • Limiting risk is important. If you only have four implants and one implant fails, you are relying on three implants alone to support the function of your teeth.
  • A Baltimore All-on-4 patient grinds his/her teeth. The strain that these individuals put on their protheses and dental implants can result in the breakage of one or both sets of prosthetic teeth, as well as the loss of one or more of the dental implants.
  • People have limited or eroded jaw bone. It is important for the long-term viability of your All-on-4 procedure that the bone be strong enough to support the implants.

If you are considering All-on-4 or any sort of dental implant procedure, contact The Maryland Center. We can discuss different options that can help you get the replacement teeth that you want with the lasting results you need.

Baltimore All-on-4 patients, please call your local office of The Maryland Center for an initial consultation.