08/03/2026
Problem Solved
8 - 9:30 am last Friday
Second appointment of the day. I gave anesthesia, saw a couple of short follow up visits while the anesthetic did its job, then I opened a gingival flap where the 3 dental implants needed to be placed.
Because all those posterior upper teeth were extracted decades ago the width of the maxillary ridge kept shrinking to a level that made dental implant placement almost impossible. Almost. But not totally impossible.
Using a surgical carbide burr, I created a deep slot on the ridge, then i placed three dental implants of increasing diameter, thus gently widening the slot, and decreasing length as allowed by the available bone. The gaps between implants were grafted with hydroxyapatite, a well researched bone grafting material, and the gingival flap was closed with dissolvable long lasting sutures.
In a few months, after complete bone healing, the patient will have new solid implant supported crowns in that area. She is really looking forward to that day since she’s not a fan of the removable denture she now wears.
Problem solved 😷
