Replacing, rebuilding, restoring or reconstructing are many ways to describe building a whole new smile when you’ve lost all or most of your teeth. That’s what full dental reconstruction, otherwise known as full dental restoration, involves.
Missing teeth can be caused by many factors, the most common of which include injury, gum disease and tooth decay. You can also be born with missing teeth due to genetic conditions such as hypodontia. Regardless of the cause of your dental gaps, they’re not something you simply have to learn to live with. The consequences of leaving gaps in your smile can be significant: jawbone deterioration, teeth shifting out of place and gum disease that spreads bacteria and infection to other parts of the body. These are just a few of the long-term problems you may experience.
It takes a trained professional to carry out dental reconstruction procedures, and there are more procedures than many people are aware of. Perhaps surprisingly, not all these procedures involve intense pain, invasive operations and long recovery periods. There’s more than one way to regain your smile – and one that will give you a new one in as little as 24 hours.
What is Dental Reconstruction?
Full dental reconstruction is a restorative dental procedure that’s also an aesthetic one. It involves replacing all or at least most of your teeth in a way that takes all the important elements into account: your smile, your bite, your speech, and your jaw health. It can provide you with a smile that you’ll be confident sharing with the world and renewed dental and overall physical health.
Full dental reconstruction can be the answer for patients with few to no natural teeth left, patients with a large number of severely decayed teeth, or patients with many broken or cracked teeth. It can involve several both cosmetic and restorative dental procedures, as the next section describes.
The Different Types of Dental Reconstruction
Procedures involved in full dental reconstruction can include:
Dental implants
Dental implants are replacements for missing teeth. But unlike dentures or false teeth, they’re permanently inserted into your jawbone and can’t be removed. First, a titanium screw is inserted into the jaw to replace the missing tooth's roots, and then an artificial tooth – or “crown” is attached to the top. As time passes, bone grows and fuses to the dental implant to hold it in place. The crown can be designed to match the colour and shape of your natural teeth.
Dental implants are an effective procedure that allows you to get new, convincing-looking, permanent teeth. But they often require long recovery periods. And if your jawbone isn’t sufficiently dense to support the implants, some bone grafting may be necessary.
Dental bridges
A dental bridge replaces missing teeth with a row of false teeth attached to two remaining teeth on either side. This row or “bridge” is often made of porcelain or metal. The teeth on either side are filed down, and the bridge is attached to them using dental cement.
Dental crowns
A dental crown covers a broken or badly decayed tooth and not only makes it look better but prevents it from breaking any further. It can come in several materials like porcelain, metal or ceramic and is made by taking a mould of the existing tooth. Although dental crowns aren’t subject to decay, the same can’t be said for the edges of the teeth they sit on. Brushing and flossing remain important to stop your crown from breaking or falling out in the future.
Inlays and onlays
Most of us have had a filling at some stage in our lives. It’s a very common dental procedure. An inlay is a filling that’s larger than usual, covering the space between the bumps in your teeth. Dental inlays are often used if the decay covers a larger area than a regular filling would usually take care of. Onlays are partial crowns that cover one or more of the bumps in your tooth and are often used if you have a weakened tooth structure that a regular filling would damage.
Then we come to a truly unique mode of full dental reconstruction: All-on-4®.
All-on-4®
All-on-4® is an advanced restorative dental procedure that provides you with a brand new, natural-looking, stunning smile using just four implants
Dr Paulo Malo pioneered the All-on-4® treatment in 1998, and Next Smile helped him to bring it to Australia. Thousands of people have chosen the All-on-4® treatment at Next Smile with its impressive 98% success rate.
How it works
Two implants are inserted into the front of your jaw and two in the rear, and together they support an entire “bridge” of new teeth. At Next Smile, we follow a two-bridge process called ‘The Malo Protocol’. During stage one, you’ll receive your “provisional bridge”, a set of temporary teeth to wear for three to six months. As your mouth adjusts to the implants and teeth, we’ll work with you closely to ensure your new permanent teeth are exactly what you want, and then it will be time to fit your “final bridge”. Your new teeth will be manufactured to the highest quality using Nobel Biocare components.
Benefits
Your new smile will look so natural it will be difficult for anyone to tell your teeth aren’t real! All they’ll see is a set of gleaming, white, perfectly cared-for teeth that you’ll be happy to show off to the world. With only four implants required to complete the procedure, you’ll not need to endure uncomfortable bone grafting. In fact, you’ll surpass long recovery times entirely with your first set of provisional teeth always available within 24 hours of implant surgery. By combining innovative treatment methods with technological advancement, the All-on-4® treatment concept provides a predictable outcome saving time and money when compared to more traditional dental implant procedures.
Get All-on-4® at Next Smile Australia
Next Smile Australia may not be the only dental clinic in your area offering All-on-4® treatment. However, we’re likely to be the only one who uses the proven clinically researched treatment method of ‘The Malo Protocol’ and the one in which many dental surgeons have been trained in All-on-4® by Dr Malo.
Our values and ethics drive us to place high importance on our patients' comfort and standard of treatment, and our hard-working staff and high-grade technology see this vision fulfilled. We stay at the forefront of our industry and its new developments so you can feel secure throughout your treatment journey.
Our Super Clinics around the country are industry-leading, surgery-grade environments designed to provide the best possible care and comfort. They include in-house dental laboratories, state-of-the-art surgical rooms, x-rays and CBCT scans. All of your appointments will take place on one site. And if you live far away from a major city, our Accredited Partners provide the same standard of treatment closer to home for you.
We offer transparent pricing that takes the uncertainty out of your treatment costs. To find out more about the All-on-4® treatment or arrange a personal consultation, get in touch with Next Smile Australia.