Fixed Bridges

Good morning and welcome to the Shatkin F.I.R.S.T.® Monday morning minute.

Hi, I’m Dr. Todd Shatkin. And good morning and welcome to this Monday morning Minute. Today I want to talk to you about something that I want to encourage all of you to try. Many of you have never done a roundhouse or a fix on six restoration on mini implants. It’s hard for me to believe that, but it’s true. I’ve talked to so many dentists who’ve actually all they focus on is denture stabilization and an occasional single tooth here or there. But you’re missing out. If you’re not doing the roundhouses and the fix on six restorations on mini implants, that is where you’re going to change patients lives dramatically.

Denture stabilization is great, but when you can take away their denture and give them something permanent, a roundhouse bridge or a fix on six restoration, you are going to change their life forever. And at the same time, you’re going to make a nice profit in your dental practice. It’s going to change the way you practice dentistry. So if you’ve never done one, I want to encourage you to try it. Okay? And we make these wonderful zirconia roundhouse bridges and we’re also doing these now with Zantex frames with individual crowns on them.

That’s a fiber reinforced fiberglass base, but either way the concept is the same. We make a roundhouse bridge and it snaps right on to the mini implants. It doesn’t come out. The patients do not remove it. It stays in all the time. It eliminates the denture completely. If you’re not sure how to go about doing this procedure, we will hold your hand every step of the way. But it’s really quite easy. You basically follow the same steps you would for making a set of dentures. You put the implants in, you take your impressions. You can use their existing dentures as temporaries.

When I do that, all I do is grind out the denture and use like a polyvinyl reline material or polyvinyl bite registration material to realign it temporarily while we’re fabricating the restorations. We’ll make bite rims for you. You’ll take your bite. We’ll then make a try in a plastic tryin to see if the vertical and the aesthetics are good. And if you say they look good, we go to the finished product, which will be your final Zirconia or Xantex frame, fixed on six restoration. We typically use six to ten implants for this procedure.

And I’m telling you, you are going to love doing these. If you get yourself started, it’s a lot for you to think about. I know many of you are a little scared or timid to try to do a full arch bridge, but if we hold your hand every step of the way, which we will, I will make it so easy for you. You’re going to love doing these, and you’re going to be kicking yourself for not trying it sooner.

So give us a call if you want some help. One of us will walk you through the whole process, help you with everything to do with the lab work and everything in between. So start doing fix on fixes and cemented roundhouse bridges. It will change your practice. It’ll change your patients lives, and you’ll be very happy you did. I’ll see you next time on the Monday Morning Minute.