
However, whenever a patient undergoes extensive tooth loss, it often causes a number of changes to take place in the shape of the jaw, as well as the gums. All-on-4 implants go a step further by helping to build out the gum line ridge which is immediately adjacent to your natural teeth. In essence, this restores both gums and teeth, which means it supports more than simple tooth anatomy. This kind of structural change happens to be the major difference between an implant bridge and other solutions for tooth replacement.
Implant bridges vs individual implants
The ideal time to choose implant bridges is in situations where you’re not missing all the teeth on an upper or lower arch, and you still have some that are perfectly stable and healthy. In a situation like this, it may not be the best idea to extract those healthy teeth for the purpose of installing a full-arch prosthesis. It’s probably better in most cases to install individual implants between teeth, or to go with an implant-supported bridge.Implants are typically strong enough to support a considerable amount of weight, so it’s much less invasive to install a pair of implants to be used in an implant bridge. For instance, a patient having three missing teeth might be well advised to have two implants installed to support a three-unit bridge. However, if that same situation only involved two missing teeth, it might be better to go with individual implants and crowns for each of the missing teeth.
When all-on-4 dental implants are a better choice
When it becomes necessary to replace an entire upper or lower arch of teeth, all-on-4 implants become a very realistic option. With this approach, only four to six dental implants would be needed to replace all of your upper or lower teeth. Disregarding wisdom teeth, that means 14 teeth on top or bottom can be replaced just by using four or six implants. Of course, the health of your jaw bone will be a major factor, because it will be necessary to have sufficient mass to support the installation of the titanium posts in the jaw bone.People who have experienced slightly more bone loss, may require six implants to replace all the upper or lower arch of teeth. That’s still a much better option than having to install one implant for each missing tooth, as you would normally have to do. In an all-on-4 operation, implants will be required to support the weight of slightly more than two teeth each, and this is a very predictable and safe arrangement as a dental solution.
Benefits of implant bridges

- they’re easier to clean than traditional dentures, and some other types of dental implants
- there’s far less impact on your speech and how you create sounds
- it’s much less likely to require any type of bone grafting when you have an implant bridge installed
- it won’t be necessary to install any kind of special parts for achieving a required angle or leverage for support, as would be the case with all-on-4 implants
- they sit very comfortably and naturally on your gums
- they look very realistic and natural, so that no one can really tell they’re in place.
Benefits of all-on-4 dental implants

- It only requires a minimum of four, and a maximum of six implants to replace all 14 teeth on an upper or lower arch of teeth
- it is the most stable kind of dental solution you can put in place
- it provides complete confidence for the patient
- you can actually have a hybrid bridge installed for better support, although this bridge cannot be removed by the patient, and requires practitioner intervention for removal.