What is a mini dental implant?
A mini implant is an implant that's less than 3 millimeters in diameter. Typical implant platforms go from 3 to about 6 millimeters and then are usually about 10 millimeters in length.
To have a successful implant, you want at least 2 mm of bone around it, minimum 1. For patients who have lost teeth for a while, especially in the lower anterior mandible, where the denture really moves around very easily, the bone is resorbed, and you don't have a great ridge to put that implant in. And you can graft it. We do a lot of grafting at Dulac Dental of Springfield. You can graft the ridge back out, but that adds time, discomfort, and cost.
Mini implants have been out for over 20 years, and we have 20 years of data on them. They last just as long as regular implants if they're properly done. What we do is take a 2 to 3 mm implant that's a little longer, like 13 mm. We place it—my favorite application for this is in the lower anterior mandible, where patients have had a denture for a while.
Upper dentures fit pretty well. Lower dentures—everyone hates them. They slide around. This is a really nice way to put in some implants to retain a lower denture. Instead of two regular implants, you do twice as many. So, four mini implants in the lower anterior. And that really helps you lock in a denture, and it provides some immediate retention to the denture.
Then, in a couple of months, after the bone has healed a little more, we can actually put some little kind of O-rings, kind of snaps, onto those as well.
What if you don't have enough bone height for a regular dental implant?
Now, the other thing that might be missing in your bone is height. We start with a lot of height, but once the teeth are lost, in areas where there's pressure after the teeth are lost, especially the upper sinuses, the bone is going to start to resorb. In these areas, we have a lot of width, but we don't have a lot of height. I do do sinus lifts in my office. That's always an option, but again, it adds time and cost to the procedure.
Shorter Dental Implants at Dulac Dental of Springfield
Shorter implants have also been out for decades. We've got decades of data on them now. There is no indication that they last any less than your regular implant. The reason we've always shot for 10 mm is that studies have shown you get about 10 mm of force down the implant. So, 10 mm has always been our go-to.
For a number of years, a number of companies have had 8 or 9 mm implants. When I say a short implant, we're talking about a really short implant, like 6 mm. The implant is wider and shorter. So instead of a mini implant being long and narrow, we have this shorter implant, kind of a short and stubby one. This is for areas where you have a lot of width of the bone but not a lot of height. So, the maxillary sinus area, the upper jaw in the back, and also on the lower jaw, you have a nerve that runs through your jaw. Different people—their nerve runs at different heights.
For some people, it runs very low; for some people, it runs a little more in the middle. After the teeth are gone, the bone starts to resorb. We don't have a predictable way to graft up in the lower jaw. We can graft out, but predictably, grafting up is very challenging. For a number of years, patients with 6 mm of bone between their nerve and the crest of the bone ridge have been told they're not a candidate for implants. We now know that these shorter implants last just as long as regular implants.
Again, if you've been told that you don't have enough bone because your nerve's too close or your sinus is too close or something like that, I do do a lot of grafting procedures in my office, but we can also place a shorter implant.
Mini Dental Implants and Short Dental Implants at Dulac Dental of Springfield
If you're interested in learning more about mini implants or shorter implants to see if this is an option for you, if you were told you couldn't have implants because you didn't have enough bone, this could be a great option for you!
If you’re looking for dental care you can trust, call us at (703) 451-4500 or email [email protected]. We’re here to help you have the smile you've always wanted!