Basic Description of Mini Dental Implant

Step by step description of surgery

On the day of Surgery, the dentist determines the correct position for each of (generally) four or more implants and then marks the position for each on the ridge with an indelible marker. Anesthesia is injected into the gums directly over the spots he/she made on the gums. Then the dentist begins to drill right through the gums into the bone using a 1.1 mm pilot drill in a slow speed handpiece.
After drilling the pilot hole, The dentist then begins the procedure for inserting the implant through the gums into the drilled hole. He begins by carefully aligning the implant with the original pilot hole and slowly twisting it with a finger wrench until the resistance becomes too great to continue easily. Then the dentist switches to a thumb wrench. The thumb wrench is slowly twisted until the implant is fully seated with the ball and about 1.5 mm of the shank remaining above the gums. (In the images here, a special retraction device retracts the tongue, lips and cheek so the field is kept clear and dry.)

If too much resistance to twisting the implant is met, the dentist may switch to using a specially designed ratchet wrench to finish the insertion.

The finished case looks like the images below. This is the same case viewed head on, and again, from above, using a mirror. These images were taken immediately post op. Note the lack of bleeding.

At this point, an impression of the case is taken and detailed procedures for the fabrication of the dentures or bridges are obtained.

Special thanks to Dr. Martin Spiller