Implant-supported dental prostheses as a treatment concept in edentulous maxillae

Patients with mandibular dentures providing stable support on natural teeth or implants will benefit from replacement of their maxillary complete denture with an implant-supported removable denture. A treatment concept for maxillary removable dentures supported by four implants with telescoping double crowns placed at a maximum distance from each other is presented. Two of the four implants should be placed in the posterior region, which in many cases requires sinus floor elevation. The position of the second premolar is often the best compromise to achieve primary-stability allowing a single-stage augmentation procedure on one hand and a position as close as possible to the center of maximum loading on the other. If the polygon of support cannot be increased with further implants, additional implants in the anterior segment (> 4) will contribute little to the stability of the denture.