A: The All on Four process is actually simpler than people think— in the hands of a good clinician and a good provider. It’s going to involve diagnosis and treatment planning. After that, the patient will spend one day in the office where the surgical procedure is performed under IV sedation. That same day, the patient is going to go home with their new set of teeth.
Obviously, the body doesn’t heal in one day—even though the patient goes home with a new set of teeth in one day, the body needs to heal. The bone needs to grow around those implants. A few weeks later, when that has happened, the patient can receive their permanent set of new teeth in one or two more appointments.
In general, here in our office, the procedure—it’s about 3-5 appointments. Normally, patients have their final teeth within 4-5 months. But, after the diagnosis and treatment planning, they go home with their new set of teeth in one day.
Once the body heals, they get their final set of teeth, but the problem ends in one day. It’s amazing to see how they recover their confidence. They go back home happy, smiling, and all their past fears, pain, and suffering is gone in one day.
The All on Four process is a revolutionary process that gives a patient new teeth in a single day. Naturally, the entire process takes longer, but the actual procedure is a one day surgery. If you want to understand the whole process, we’ll break it down for you. To start, you’ll want a quick refresher on what All on Four and dental implants are.
What Is A Dental Implant?
Dental implants are what make the All on Four process possible. Essentially implants are a small titanium post that is threaded on the ends. It is screwed into the jawbone where a tooth root once was. This post bonds with the jawbone and replaces a natural tooth root and becomes the anchor for a permanent crown.
This results in a permanent restoration that has the same form, function, and feel like a natural tooth, and preserves the jawbone. Without implants, a patient would have to resort to dentures that do not keep the jawbone from deteriorating. Dentures also make it hard to speak, eat certain foods, and don’t look quite natural.
In the past, dental implants, while using advanced technology, were a cumbersome procedure when replacing an entire arch of teeth. But, All on Four changes the game for procedures like this.
All On Four—Making Dental Implants Easier
All-on-Four dental implants ironically borrow the concept behind dentures and pair it with the superiority of dental implants. Dentures, on their own, are cumbersome, not natural feeling, and are awkward. However, if you take the concept of dentures, customize them with great detail, and mount them on dental implants—you have a winner.
That’s exactly what All on Four is. The procedure takes dentures and creates them out of advanced materials for a lifelike appearance. However, these dentures are different—they mount to a set of four implants per arch. This is where the “All on Four” name comes from.
By mounting a custom, handcrafted denture on four titanium posts, patients can get a new smile in one day. In days gone by, if you were missing an entire arch, you’d have to get an implant for each missing tooth. Not only is that very tedious, but also quite painful.
All on Four eliminates the excess pain and the tedious nature of replacing an arch one by one. It’s also a 1:1 recreation of your smile which means you won’t have speaking or eating complications. We have dozens of patients every week wanting to ditch their dentures and switch to All on Four.
What Is The Procedure Like?
Even though we compare All on Four to dentures, the similarities end at both being a prosthetic solution. All on Four also offers jawbone protection as well as retained bite strength and speaking ability. Plus, it’s permanent, no messy adhesives, no slippage, and no cleaning them in fizzy water every night.
We understand that many people are uneasy about even the simplest dental surgery. However, most of the issues we have are fear of the unknown. However, at Stone Ridge Dental, we love to teach our clients about our craft. It makes for a better understanding of what we do, and why we do it. That being said, let us enlighten you a bit on how the process goes.
Being Calm Is Key— This procedure is very involved, so the more relaxed you are, the smoother it goes. For this reason, we administer IV sedation to make it as effortless and comfortable as possible.
The Preparation— We need to make sure the implant sites are clean and clear which means extracting any failing teeth, cleaning the wound areas, and prepping for implantation.
Placing The Implants— Four implants per arch are inserted into your jawbone at the positions needed. Typically it’s two at the front of your mouth and two in the back so that bite force is distributed evenly.
Clean Up And Suture— Once the prosthetics have been mounted on the implants, Dr. Monarres cleans the surgery site and sutures the incisions closed. After that, it’s on to the recovery room so the anesthesia can wear off a bit.
Post Op Care
All on Four holds advantages over dentures across the board, and the recovery time is just another one of them. With dentures, it can take you up to a year to recover and adjust to life. In fact, with many patients that get dentures, it can be quite debilitating.
However, with All on Four, most patients are back at work in just two days with a bit of Aleve or Advil. Recovery time with All on Four is pretty quick because all the hard work is done in one visit. This allows your mouth to heal all at once instead of getting multiple surgeries.
When you exit the recovery room your mouth will have gauze packing over the implant sites. Make sure you bite down gently on the gauze to encourage bleeding to stop. After an hour has passed, you will have the packing removed. If the bleeding has stopped, then nothing else is needed.
However, if it has not stopped, you will be given gauze packing to put in yourself at home. You need to be sure you change the gauze every half hour until you stop bleeding.
Recovery At Home
When you get home make sure to not touch the sore areas as you can easily get them infected. Make sure you gargle with the medicated rinse that will be provided. You can brush your implants, just do it very gently with a soft toothbrush.
For a week after your All on Four procedure, even though you can return to work in 48 hours it’s better to rest. Many do return to their job within two days but it depends on your job. If it is something that is hard physical labor, then by all means take the week off. If it’s a minor office role, returning early might work for you. Just do what you feel is best.
As far as your diet goes, while you can eat anything you want with All on Four, you’ll need to take it easy for a bit. Stick to softer foods like pasta, soups, eggs, etc. It won’t be long until you’ll be back to normal and better than ever.
Get Your Confidence Back With All On Four By Monarres
Don’t live hiding your smile another second. Dr. Monarres has changed countless lives with the All on Four procedure and he can do the same for you.
Contact us today and book your free All On Four consultation!
