Patients affected by anodontia are still a large group among people seeking help in our clinic. The loss of all teeth can be caused by many factors that last throughout the patient’s life. The supply and rehabilitation of toothless patients is a serious challenge and a topic that requires the dentist or the entire team of dentists to have the right approach and experience. Modern diagnostics, including panoramic X-ray images and computed tomography are also indispensable.
Consequences of anodontia.
Because along with the loss of teeth the bones and soft tissues disappear, the faster the toothless patient decides to rehabilitate the masticatory system the better. Apart from serious difficulties in nutrition, problems with digestion and degeneration of the temporomandibular joints, the anodontia leads to premature aging of the patient’s face, giving the face a “diminutive” look, with sunken cheeks, lips, and reduced clamping height. Classical prosthetics for many years had to offer patients only dental prostheses. The use of total dentures is not very comfortable. Maintenance of the prosthesis is achieved only by means of close adhesion, “sucking” the prosthesis plate to the mucous membrane. These dentures, of course, are also successfully use by our patients, but the big disadvantage is the need to replace the prosthesis every 3-4 years for a new one. This is due to the fact that the edentulous bone process on which the prosthesis rests is lost due to non-physiological load.
Anodontia – treatment options.
In modern prosthodontics, implantology opens up completely new options for the treatment of edentulousness. The simplest solution are prostheses fixed on several implants (usually three or four). They have a very limited surface of the acrylic panel. This reduces the feeling of a foreign body and retching. The forces released during eating with such a prosthesis move axially through implants to the patient’s own bone. It is as close as possible to the physiological mechanism of chewing. There is not so much pressure on the mucous membrane. As a result, the bones and soft tissues are much smaller. Very often completely eliminated.
Prosthesis on implants.
Prosthesis fixed on implants is very stable and immovable even when eating and chewing hard food, such as steaks, apples or raw carrots. There is no need to use any adhesives fixing the prosthesis, because the strength of the prosthesis fixing by the fastening elements on the implants is very high. In the case of prosthesis mounted on implants, the condition and quality of the bone in which the dental implants are fixed is extremely important. Therefore, it is not worth delaying the decision to replace the old prosthesis with an implant-supported prosthesis. Too long use of a regular total prosthesis leads to large bone loss, hindering implant treatment.
