All on 4: why you should avoid it
Have you lost your teeth and want to smile and chew again as before? There are several solutions in dentistry that you can choose and one of these is the so-called All on 4. Let’s talk about dental implantology, therefore, not mobile prostheses.
Many patients, to save money and speed up interventions, prefer to rely on the All on 4, and then to regret it. Why? Today we will explain to you some elements of the All on 4 implantology, which will make you understand why it is the worst solution you chose to get your teeth back.
How does All on 4 work?
First of all: do you know why it’s called “All on 4”? Literally it means “all (the dental arch) on 4 (implants)”. Yes, an entire dental arch will rest only on 4 dental implants.
And how many teeth should an entire arch have? In total we have 32 teeth divided into 16 teeth in the upper arch and 16 in the lower one. So with the All on 4 implantology you will have 16 false teeth anchored to your arch on just 4 dental implants.
It is certainly a fast procedure to insert only 4 implants, and it is also an economic solution, because 4 dental implants plus the fixed prosthesis obviously cost much less than 16 implants with the prostheses.
So why isn’t it convenient to choose the implantology all on 4? Because of some disadvantages that it brings – and they are more than a few!
5 big risks of the implantology All on 4
When choosing a dental treatment rather than another, you need to know the pros and cons of that procedure in detail. The advantages and disadvantages. The All on 4 costs less, but what and how many disadvantages does it have?
We’ll list well 5 (plus a “bonus” of 3).
Problems of stability with the All on 4
Our natural teeth have roots to be anchored, to stay well fixed in the jaw bone. During chewing, forces are exerted on the teeth, pressures that could affect their stability if there were no roots to keep them firmly in place.
With the All on 4, as we told you, you will only have 4 dental implants for 14 teeth (excluding wisdom teeth). This means, in a nutshell, having 14 teeth held in place by just 4 roots.
There is also another problem: the 4 dental implants of the All on 4 are all positioned in the front part of the dental arch. The two most backward implants are anchored at an inclined angle, to reach the most distant points.
Removal of food deposits accumulated under the prosthesis
The maintenance of dental implants is a fundamental habit that every patient must have, as well as taking care of their dental hygiene every day. Plaque and tartar accumulate on the teeth undermining the enamel and causing, in the long run, caries and periodontal diseases.
If on the one hand it is true that a fixed tooth, that is a tooth that replaces the lost natural one, cannot be attacked by caries, on the other it is true that we must continue to perform a correct maintenance of the new teeth that we have got back. Food residues continue to accumulate and this, with the All on 4, is a major problem.
If instead you have only the 4 dental implants of the All on 4 and a prosthesis for the 14 teeth, the chewing residues can infiltrate below the fixed prosthesis and cause a series of discomforts and problems such as bad breath and gum disease.
Lack of aesthetics in the All on 4
Try to imagine this scenario: a lost tooth, a dental implant (a biocompatible titanium screw that replaces the root) and a porcelain prosthesis (identical to the natural tooth). When you smile, nobody will notice the difference compared to a smile made of natural teeth.
Now imagine another scenario: almost all your lost teeth, 4 dental implants for an arch, a prosthesis made of 14 teeth. Before smiling, think of a detail that perhaps you missed: and the gum?
One or more single dental implants do not have the gum problem, because each tooth is fixed in the gum in the same position that the natural tooth had. But with the All on 4, which must provide up to 14 teeth, all in a single block, you will also need to have … a new gum.
Okay, not really a new gum, but those 14 teeth will also have a pink part that reproduces the gum, a color that will never be the same as your natural gum. At the expense of aesthetics.
The risk of losing all your teeth again…
There is a failure rate in dental implants – very low, to tell the truth. In general, if the patient carefully follows all the dentist’s instructions, the dental implant does not fail and lasts a lifetime.
If you have 3 implants installed, for example, and one of the systems fails, you can replace it. You will have lost only one implant and therefore only one tooth.
What if a single dental implant fails from the All on 4? The answer is simple and dramatic: you have lost 14 teeth. You will have to redo everything from scratch.
3 follow-up visits per year
With the All on 4, a particular solution to get your teeth back, the maintenance is more delicate, because it requires 3 paid visits per year. You have read in this article what problems and discomforts the All in 4 can give – such as the accumulation of food residues that infiltrate under the metal bar, which only the specialist can remove – and only the dentist can check if it’s all is in order.
Further problems with the All on 4
- In some patients hissing occurred while talking (surely due to the fact that the teeth are not all well anchored to the jaw).
- It is not a completely a customized solution: with a single implant the tooth is reconstructed starting from the shape and color of your natural teeth, something impossible to do when you need to make a block of 14 teeth.
- Unpleasant feeling of having a large body in the mouth.
Alternative solutions to the All on 4
Yes, there are more stable solutions. We at Gremi Clinic offer the so-called All on 6 and All on 8, therefore fixed prostheses with 6 or 8 dental implants respectively, more stable and safe.
Do you want to get your smile back?
If you have lost your teeth, write us and tell us about your problem before throwing yourself onto the All on 4. We will give you all the information on the best solution to solve it.
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