Dental Implants Dentistry Blog

This 24 year-old female came to see me at my Burbank office.  She already had an implant, a custom abutment and a temporary crown on her lower front tooth. She was ready to be fitted with the real crown.

The temporary on the dental implant custom abutment did not look very good at all.  Neither the patient, nor I really liked it.  Besides being dark and black at the gum line, it lacked other the right shape of gum.  It looked to "set back" towards her tongue.

The tooth was further complicated by the implant being about 0.3mm to 0.5mm too large.  Yes...that tiny amount makes a HUGE difference in the final result.

I reshaped her temp and "trained" her gum to fill in between the teeth and make them the same length. This took a few weeks for this to occur and is done by modifying the temporary...NO surgery is done.

Below is the photo series of the dental implant restoration using her existing custom abutment.

This is how she came to me with her existing temp in place:

Here is the abutment after I reshaped it:

The final porcelain crown and corrected gum line appearance:

Final x-ray:

I was able to help her control the cost of the restoration by using the existing titanium metal custom abutment rather than starting from scratch.  A narrower implant and abutment would have made this much easier.

Comments? 
 
Ramsey A. Amin, D.D.S.
Diplomate of the American Board of Oral Implantology /Implant Dentistry
Fellow of the American Academy of Implant Dentistry
Burbank, California
http://www.burbankdentalimplants.com
  

This is a fantastic sinus lift bone graft for dental implants case that I completed yesterday in my Burbank private practice.

This patient was missing three teeth in the upper right area. These are the three main teeth that allow you to chew.

Because the teeth were missing for so long, the bone shrank, and his sinus cavity expanded.  That happens to all of us if we extract and upper tooth and don’t replace it in a very timely manner.

The bottom x-ray shows the hollow sinus cavity.  His bone was only about 2-3 mm tall.  After I did the bone graft, the bone was about 18mm tall…that is more than an inch of new bone growth!

 
The red outline shows how tall the bone is in each image

When doing the graft, I mixed in some of his own blood that I drew from his arm to concentrate bone growth factors, stem cells and platelets. This is called "PRP."

Here is a skull showing the how close the sinuses are to the upper teeth:

I was very pleased with the result of his sinus lift bone graft.  The three dental implants are firmly anchored.  I did this procedure while he slept under intravenous sedation in the office. I have been doing this type of bone graft for the last eleven years on a very routine basis.

Ramsey A. Amin, D.D.S.
Diplomate of the American Board of Oral Implantology /Implant Dentistry
Fellow of the American Academy of Implant Dentistry
Burbank, California
http://www.burbankdentalimplants.com

Filmed in Burbank -Part 2 of 9.

This is the second of a nine-part series that specifically discusses dental implant replacement of "specific" teeth.

Every tooth in your mouth is very unique!

The upper lateral incisor natural teeth are the small, side teeth just next to your two big front center teeth.

 
This tooth implant has so many details that you really should know before you start treatment. It can make or break a smile! It is often missing from birth.

Feel free to comment below (no need to sign up) or comment on my Facebook fan page!

Here is an older post with some example cases of mine.  Not all of them are upper lateral teeth, but many are.

Look for future posts of this series!

Ramsey A. Amin, D.D.S.
Diplomate of the American Board of Oral Implantology /Implant Dentistry
Burbank, California
http://www.burbankdentalimplants.com