Don't Want Dentures? Get Omega Teeth®

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Every day, we see countless patients who’re tired of their dental struggles. They’re tired of getting countless fillings, root canals, and crowns. They’re tired of how much it all costs and how painful it all is. They’re tired of not having a smile that they can feel proud to show off. They’re just plain tired.

At other offices, doctors see patients like these and they push them to continue their dental journey by going down more dead-end roads. They pile on more root canals and crowns. Sometimes, they may recommend extracting some teeth and giving the patient partials or dentures. While dentures do work for some patients, they make life unnecessarily complicated for others. For these people, the journey to finding a real solution after suffering from terminal dentition is stubbornly elusive. Or, at least, it was.

Nowadays, there are long-term, fixed alternatives to dentures. They’re called full-arch or full-mouth dental implants. While it does take surgery to place dental implants, once they’re in, you never have to worry about them again. If done correctly, they’re incredibly long-lasting and strong. Full-mouth dental implant patients can eat steak, apples, and any other kind of tough or chewy food that denture patients have to stay away from. They’re truly the best way to regain a smile after the loss of natural teeth.

Lots of companies make full-mouth dental implants and lots of dental offices have their own systems for placing those implants. I’ve had the ability to talk with many of these engineers and doctors and pick both the best materials and the best placement practices for full-mouth dental implants. I call this system Omega Teeth® dental implants because they’re the last teeth you should ever need.

Here’s what makes Omega Teeth® special:

Fully-guided

If you’re looking into getting full-mouth or full-arch implants, the most important question you need to ask your doctor is “is the surgery fully-guided?” If (s)he says no, find another doctor.

All of the implants we place at Stanley Dentistry are fully-guided (even single implants) because a guide is the best way to ensure an implant doesn’t fail. So, how do dental implant surgical guides work? And why are they so important? It all has to do with planning and perfect placement.

Dental implants need bone around them in order to be strong enough to endure daily tasks like eating. Not just any bone, though — strong, substantial bone. By looking at x-rays and CBCT scans, I can map out where exactly a dental implant would be most successful. I can then send that information to a dental lab that’ll make a custom surgical guide. The guide fits over the patient’s mouth during the surgery and only allows me to place the implant(s) in one particular spot. There is zero chance for human error with guided implants. The placement is perfect, up to the very last millimeter.

Compare that to the freehand technique many dentists still use to place implants and you can see why we choose to go the guided route. With freehand implants, the doctor may plan where to place the implant before surgery but during the surgery, s/he has to place the implant essentially blind. The chance for error to occur is huge. If the doctor places the implant in a poor location, the success rate plummets. In two to five years, the patient will most likely have a failing implant. With guided implants (and proper maintenance from the patient), most patients can expect to keep their implants for life.

Never without a smile

With a lot of full-mouth dental implant solutions, the patient wakes up from surgery without teeth. The surgeon places the implants (the titanium “screws”) but they don’t place the crown (or prosthetic teeth) at that time. Instead, they wait an indeterminate amount of time for the mouth to heal. The gums heal over the implants, hiding them. During this period (which can last over six months), the patient is typically left without a smile. After the healing period is done, the patient comes back for another appointment. This time, the doctor cuts open the gums (again) in search of the covered-up implants. Once the doctor finds them, (s)he can finally deliver the crown.

This is a really dated way to give patients full-mouth dental implants. It’s unnecessarily painful and potentially humiliating for the patient who has to go six months without a smile. With the Omega Teeth® system, we wanted to give patients a smile right away. We also wanted to remove the step where the doctor has to cut away the healed gum tissue to reveal the implants. After tweaking a few things within the old, traditional implant system, we were able to make those wants a reality.

When an Omega Teeth® patient wakes up from surgery, they have a smile. For the first six months of healing, they wear a temporary crown that looks great but is not made of long-lasting materials (because it’s temporary). After those six months, the patients return to our office to get their permanent crown. The permanent crown is made of zirconia and is built to last. Because Omega Teeth® patients wear a temporary crown right out of surgery, there is no need to “re-reveal” the implants. This means less pain and a much shorter final appointment.

Schedule Your Omega Teeth® Consultation

Right now, we’re offering complimentary Omega Teeth® consultations for patients who would need dentures but would like a better alternative. Give us a call at 919.460.9665 to set up a consultation.