Dental implants take the bite out of high denture expenses

Dental implants take the bite out of high denture expenses
April 13, 2005
BY RUTH JUSTIS
The Daily Independent
Local dentists, Dr. Daniel Cook and Dr. Wade Hayashi of The Dentist House, 544 W. Drummond Ave., have added a new service for their patients - the Sendax MDI implant system.
"We've been seeing this new technology in dental journals for a while. It looked like a good thing, so we attended a class in Lake Tahoe recently and learned about these special implants which stabilize dentures," Cook said.
The Sendax MDI system allows dentists to place mini implants where conventional implants won't work. The miniature titanium implant acts like the root of your tooth and forms a fixture that is incorporated into the base of your denture. The head of the implant is shaped like a ball, and a rubber o-ring completes the system, allowing the denture to snap onto the post, thus preventing movement.
"Most people have trouble with their lower dentures shifting around in their mouths. There is no way for the denture to form a suction to hold it in place. These implants take care of that problem.
"Full upper dentures cover the taste buds on the palate. With the MDI system, we can make the upper denture in a horseshoe shape. It is stabilized by the implants and gives the person back their sense of taste," Cook said.
The MDI implants take about two hours to place into the jawbone, using a minimally invasive surgical technique. Local anesthesia or a light sedation helps make the patient more comfortable. The patient is free to eat comfortably and talk with confidence immediately following the procedure.
"Conventional implants require about six months of healing time and two surgical procedures. With the MDI implants, we are done in a couple of hours. The patient must leave their dentures in for the first 48 hours to avoid any swelling, which is a histamine response to the surgery, but there is considerably less pain involved than with conventional implants," Cook said.
Cook and Hayashi can also do implants for individual teeth. With either procedure, the dentures or individual prosthesis pop out for easy cleaning. The ball and o-ring must be kept clean for proper fit of the denture and to avoid gum disease and plaque buildup.
"We're learning more all the time about the connection between periodontal disease and heart disease. They are directly related. Clean teeth help the heart stay healthy," Cook explained.
Rather than send patients to local oral surgeons for conventional implants, Drs. Cook and Hayashi have set up their office to implant the MDI system.
"The trainer who taught us about the system has put in 4,000 implants in the last two years. He's had very good success with the MDI system," Cook said.
"We're excited to be able to offer this service for our patients," Hayashi said.
The other benefit of the MDI implants is the cost - which is about half of what conventional implants cost.