UCSF

Patients with a severely resorbed edentulous mandible suffer with various problems including mucosal pain, poor denture retention, abnormal speech and mastication, altered facial appearance, and loss of soft tissue support. These patients are often not candidates for a conventional denture or standard implant retained or supported overdenture. Mini-dental implants (MDI) have gained recent support, especially in these cases, to provide increased retention of mandibular conventional dentures. MDIs have been marketed to be placed without mucoperiosteal reflection, loaded immediately, and offer a less expensive alternative treatment option to the edentulous patient. Patients were evaluated with QOL surveys before and after implant placement and will be followed for a total of 6 years. The QOL surveys were measured using VAS scales filled out by patients. The results showed that there was no significant difference in patient QOL between MDIs and SDIs placed in the interforaminal area in the mandible for all QOL parameters.