Missing teeth pose a variety of problems. Missing front teeth cause cosmetic issues, and missing molars can compromise your chewing ability.
How many implants are needed to replace missing teeth?
Dental implants can be used to replace a single tooth or the teeth in the entire jaw. One or two missing teeth require individual implants to replace them.
If more than two teeth are missing, the number of implants does not have to correspond to the number of missing teeth. The number of implants needed depends on the site where the implant is placed. The density and quality of the bone dictate the number of implants needed.
How many dental implants can be placed in one sitting?
Most people do not lose all their teeth in one go. With greater reach and awareness about implant dentistry, many people choose to replace the tooth as soon as it is lost.
If several teeth are already missing in any one or both the jaws, you may choose to replace them individually or all at once. Theoretically, there is no limit on the number of implants that can be placed in a single sitting.
In case all the teeth in both the jaws are missing, it is always a better option to place all the implants needed at once. This gives the surgeon more flexibility to determine the number of implants and their positioning.
However, a few considerations might determine the number of implants which can be placed in a patient.
The patients overall health and age impact dental implant options
A patient’s general health is of paramount importance before planning any implant surgery. Dental implant surgery can sometimes last for a long time, depending on how complicated the anatomy of a patient’s jaw is.
If certain bone augmentation procedures are to be performed along with the implant placement, it will only increase the duration of the surgery.
The surgery may require the patient to keep their mouth open for longer periods of time. Asthmatic patients or old-aged patients may not be able to do so. In such cases, implant placement might need to be split up into more than one surgery.
You may be limited by the cost of implants
Splitting the treatment into parts can sometimes increase the total cost because each time, new consumables are used, new impressions have to be made, new temporary crowns have to be given. For such cases, where all the teeth or multiple teeth need to be replaced, it is better to get it all replaced at once.
Pain can be a factor, too
Every patient has a different pain threshold. The general perception is that if multiple implants are placed at once, it’ll be more painful compared to getting one implant.
This, however, is not true. All implants are placed under local anesthesia, making the surgery itself quite painless. However, each surgery might be followed by a certain degree of pain and swelling.
If dental implant placement is spread out over multiple sittings, the cumulative pain that the patient might need to bear may sometimes be more than what they might have had if they had opted to get them done in a single sitting.
How much time will placement take?
Prior to each surgery, the patient’s medical tests may need to be repeated. Each surgery is followed by post-operative visits for removing stitches, checking the healing, etc.
Spreading out the implant placements can considerably elongate the total duration of treatment for the patient. Thus, it is always better to get all the implants needed in the same surgery in order to reduce the overall duration of the treatment, as well as decreasing the number of visits to the dentist.
Fear: If you're scared, is it better to "rip the band-aid off" and get all implants in one go?
Sometimes, the biggest hurdle is the fear of dental implant surgery. The patient may fear the prick of the local anesthetic injection or the surgical blade used to cut through the gums. It may just be the sight of the dental instruments or the prospect of a drill in your jawbone.
Overcoming fear and anxiety can be hard and is a very real issue for many patients. Rather than undergoing multiple surgeries, anxious and scared patients should be treated in one go to minimize the number of surgeries, cuts, and pricks.