title: Mini-Implants, Mega Solutions: A Case Series.
abstract: Dental implants have evolved as a standard of care for replacement of missing teeth. Though this treatment modality promises a high level of patient satisfaction and success, it cannot be performed in all cases. Apart from medically compromised patients, implant use is also restricted whenever there is limited available bone volume at the edentulous site. An example includes the mandibular incisor, the maxillary lateral incisor region, and other sites with reduced interdental spacing and atrophic edentulous maxillary and mandibular ridges. Bone volume at some of these sites can be increased by suitable augmentation procedure for placement of a regular diameter implant (3.75 to 4.2 mm). But many a times such procedure cannot be undertaken either due to financial constraint, risk of subjecting the patient to additional surgical procedure, added time factor, or guarded prognosis of the grafted site. In such cases, mini-implants can be used. In this case series, mini-implants (2.5 to 3 mm) were used to replace teeth in all mouth quadrants and to retain a mandibular overdenture in a compromised case. The implants served well at all the sites with minimal bone loss and a high level of patient satisfaction. Mini-implants hold the potential to serve as an alternate to regular diameter implants in certain situations. Preferably they should be used in multiples to retain fixed dental prostheses and might serve as an efficient, low-cost solution for retaining overdentures in selected cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics, Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Pooja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kumari
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics, Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Mahesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.affiliation: Dental Department, NDMC Hospital, New Delhi.
authors.forename: Vikrant
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sainia
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics, Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Ankur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics, Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Rekha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics, Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Shubhra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gill
mesh_terms: D016301:Alveolar Bone Loss; D003758:Dental Implantation, Endosseous; D015921:Dental Implants; D017267:Dental Prosthesis Design; D019094:Dental Prosthesis, Implant-Supported; D019232:Dental Restoration Failure; D003828:Denture, Overlay; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D015921:Dental Implants
keywords: Mini-implants; overdenture; regular diameter implants