Cemented vs Removable Roundhouse

Hi, I’m Dr. Todd Shatkin, and welcome to this Monday Morning Minute. Every Monday morning you’ll get a tip from me on different subjects. Today we’re going to talk about when should you do a cemented roundhouse and when should you do a detachable fixed on six roundhouse. And most of the time I like to cement my restorations. However, there are certain times when I like to have a detachable fix on six restoration. Those times are when a patient needs extra fullness in the upper lip or the lower lip, but mostly it’s the upper lip because they need extra porcelain, pink porcelain up there.

When you have to build a pink porcelain flange and it has a large amount of ridge lap over the tissue, it’s nice to be able to detach that bridge every few months in the dental office, clean everything out real well and check the implants. When it’s a non ridgelap restoration like this where we can cement the bridge right on the implants and you don’t need a lot of pink porcelain, then you can go right to a cemented roundhouse restoration like this on ten to twelve implants. The other reason why to go to a detachable bridge like this one here, a fix on six restoration that can be removed in the dental office is for patient finances.

As you can see, we only put six to ten implants. Usually about eight is an average, and that saves the patient money. So it’s about $3,000 less if you go with a detachable bridge for the patient than if you do with a cemented bridge. In my office, I charge $16,800 for a cemented bridge and about $14,000 for a detachable bridge. Those are the reasons why I choose whether to go with a fixed or a detachable bridge. But like I said, the majority of the time, I would say 70% of the time, I cement my Roundhouse restorations. I want to thank you for joining us again on this Monday Morning Minute, and we’ll see you next time.