Implant-Supported Prostheses: A Comprehensive Solution for Edentulous Patients – Advantages, Disadvantages, and Clinical Considerations

Abstract

Edentulous patients have decreased in the masticatory function, loss in vertical dimension, speech impairment and poor esthetics due to loss in facial musculature support.The traditional way for treating edentulous patients is a complete removable denture. However, the progressive tissue changes occur due to wearing the denture should be compensated by adjusting it.Patients with severely resorbed alveolar ridge always having problems with their conventional dentures because of a reduced load bearing capacity, poor in there masticatory action, impairment of the motor control of the tongue, bite force decrease and weakened oral sensory function.In completely edentulous patients the implant supported overdentures is a common treatment plane which could improve oral function and comfort for edentulous patients.Implant supported overdenture improve stability, retention and offers considerable functional and psychosocial advantage compared with conventional one.Maxillary implant-supported overdenture treatment therapy has an advantage of placing implants in the anterior region, because of less morbidity and treatment time, whenever presence of a sufficient bone in the anterior area and sufficient space to cover an attachment system, the overdenture is available. Clinical investigations and implant load analyses encourage the treatment of full-arch fixed prostheses (FFP) by using only four implants rather than five or six implants.(101) However, higher stress concentrations were noted in prosthesis with cantilever extensions on the distal implants adjacent to cantilevers also the masticatory forces distribution appears to be non-uniform.Immediate rehabilitation of both mandible and maxilla by the immediately loaded FFP can be considered a successful treatment option.