Table of Contents:
- PART 1: Introduction
- PART 2: Guidelines for choosing a Dental Implants Expert
- PART 3: Understanding your surgeon’s training and experience
- PART 4: Assessing your Surgeon’s Aesthetic and Quality Standards with Dental Implants
- PART 5: Assessing your Surgeon’s Dexterous Skills and Coordination of Your Treatment
- PART 6: The Type of Facility and Anaesthetic
- PART 7: All-On-4 Costs and Type of Immediate Teeth
- PART 8: Complications with Dental Implants and Warranty Misconceptions
Option 1
Immediate Temporary, Provisional or Preliminary High Impact Acrylic Bridge
This is followed by a second stage of treatment, some 4-6 months later, involving fitting of the final acrylic bridge reinforced by a custom-milled titanium frame. The typical cost for this is $16,000 to 22,000, but I have see this costed at up to $30,000 per arch. The subsequent cost to produce the final titanium-reinforced bridge is typically in the vicinity of $7,000 to $9,000.
Option 2
Immediate Final Bridge which is the same as the second stage in option 1, but inserted immediately after surgery. There are not many clinics worldwide that that have the facilities to produce a custom-milled titanium frame for the immediate bridge, so it is impossible to draw an average cost. At All-On-4 Clinic this costs $23,000 to $25,000 with no other costs for a future final bridge.
Other Related Costs
In both options there will be an additional cost for the anesthetic (unless it is done under a local anesthetic), and also for other procedures such as bone grafting or zygoma implants, which may be necessary when the bone is extremely poor.
Long term complications related to All-On-4 temporary immediate teeth
Be aware of clinics that use the term “temporary” or “preliminary” teeth to describe what is fitted immediately after the surgery. It is likely the case because they lack the systems or ability to produce immediate Final teeth, which are reinforced with a custom-milled titanium frame.
The fitting of “temporary” or “preliminary” teeth may likely lead to long-term issues with the implants and detrimentally affect your level of comfort as well as the overall performance and aesthetic result.
A provisional or preliminary bridge usually entails a quick make-shift process, or pre-fabricated dentures that are hollowed out and retro-fitted to the implant fixtures. This would certainly make the initial treatment much cheaper, but the lack of reliability and fragile nature of such methods means that there will need to be a more permanent bridge made at some point in the near future, at an additional fee, leading to a far greater overall cost. Other than the overall dollar value, what is far more important is the biologicalcost and oral health implications by using such alternative non-definitive methods. Apart from difficulties to clean and maintain the teeth resulting in plaque-induced inflammation around the implants, the lack of structural integrity of the provisional set can cause flexure and overloading of individual fixtures resulting in bone loss or failure. These issues may not be entirely evident for a few years.
Be ware of claims that fitting temporary teeth first allows the gums to shrink before the final teeth are fitted. This is inaccurate as the gums can be guided into their final position with a proper surgical technique and a properly contoured smooth base. In the uncommon situation that some shrinkage or remodelling does take place over time, the base of the final teeth bridge can always be relined or modified at any stage to match the gums. This is quick, uncomplicated and at a very low or no cost when there is already a milled titanium frame supporting the bridge.
Long term complications related to Inadequate Surgical Levelling of the bone
In order for an All-On-4 bridge to be cleanable, aesthetic and comfortable, levelling of uneven jawbone with a procedure known as alveoplasy, must precede the implant placement. When the alveoplasty is not performed or is inadequate, the space for the bridge (restorative space) becomes more confined, and this necessitates many compromises in the design of the bridge.
Determining the amount of required alveoplasy and executing this accurately is an advanced skill. Be ware of surgeons who claim that they are “conservative” because they do not perform bone levelling. When the surgeon does not perform bone levelling, it will occur nonetheless through a natural process of atrophy, but it will not occur in a manner that can otherwise be controlled or dictated by the surgeon. Therefore being “conservative” with all-on-4 is in fact far less conservative because of the issues from the resulting compromises in the design of the bridge. Dental implants are permanent and irreversible, and as such the surgery must be definitive in its nature.
Therefore being “conservative” with all-on-4 is in fact far less conservative because of the issues from the resulting compromises in the design of the bridge. Dental implants are permanent and irreversible, and as such the surgery must be definitive in its nature.
All-On-4 Affordability
All-On-4 treatment is not cheap. The global average according to realself.com is $40,228 AUD (https://www.realself.com/all-on-4-dental-implants/cost). At any of the official All-On-4 Clinics the average cost is much lower (approx. $25,000 AUD) as this is something we focus on and do daily (https://www.allon4.com.au/dental-implant-costs/).
A substantial amount of the cost of treatment is in the components, and maintaining the infrastructure and staffing to ensure patient safety, facilitate a streamlined process and maintain high quality standards.
Desirable as this treatment may be for those who need it, affordability may indeed be an obstacle for many. Desperate to avoid dentures, patients may be forced to consider cheaper alternatives. They might be willing to accept as a compromise a cheaper looking result, bulkiness, speech and comfort issues, cleaning difficulties and compromised longevity, but what they don’t quite realise is that the cheaper implant-based alternatives are likely to also come at a significant biological cost, irreversibly harm the jawbone and limit any future treatment options or success thereof.
There are often various payment plans, which can be catered to individual circumstances, which can help you avoid the potential long-term issues that are often associated with the cheaper alternatives.
All-On-4 Clinic Quality Control & Assurance
All-On-4 Clinic has purpose built dental and surgical facility and has gained both national and international reputation particularly for its innovations and expertise in with All-On-4 immediate dental implants treatment.
Our quality control process includes:
- Treatment is undertaken by highly experienced implant surgeons, specially trained restorative dentists, and specialist anaesthetists. All clinicians are required to undertake rigorous training and attend conferences and professional development within their individual areas of practice, both nationally and abroad, thus facilitating the delivery of the highest standards of care across the various disciplines;
- Advanced training of staff to maintain the highest possible standard in terms of infection control, treatment delivery, and follow-up processes;
- The use of known tested materials and products;
- The use of reputable brands of dental implants.
- Quality control through co-operation with our on-site laboratory. Our clinicians are able to closely monitor the fabrication process at every step, thus controlling the quality of the restorations;
- Maintaining an elaborate and detailed log of all our dental implants cases
- Custom-milling of a titanium frame is used in the production of the Final teeth immediately after the surgery