Getting dental implants is often a very important change in people’s lives, but it can also be stressful, especially since many patients dread bone grafting which cannot be avoided with many dental implant procedures. Also, for some people the procedures which include bone graft are not even an option because their jawbone is no longer able to support dental implants, often due to tooth loss or extraction.

But zygomatic implants bring solution to these issues since they do not require bone graft and are available even to people with atrophied jawbone. To learn more about this technique, we discussed the topic with experts at Temecula Facial Oral Surgery who agreed to share some basic information about this topic.

How Do Zygomatic Implants Function?

As already mentioned, this type of implants is ideal for people with significant jawbone loss. The bone surrounding a tooth often recedes with time once the tooth is lost, because it no longer receives the stimulation created by the chewing force. So for such cases where the jawbone can no longer provide support for dental implants, instead of the standard and often dreaded procedure of bone graft, usually taken from the hip, the implants are instead inserted into the cheekbone, that is, zygomatic bone.

How Do Zygomatic Implants Differ from the Standard Dental Implants?

There are a few significant aspects in which zygomatic implants differ from the traditional ones. Let’s start from the most obvious feature, which is the length. Namely, in comparison to the conventional implants, the zygomatic ones are three to five times longer. Also, they are inserted at a pronounced angle.

All of these characteristics serve to make sure the implants do not touch the sinuses while at the same time being firmly anchored in the zygomatic bones. The technique of placing these implants is another difference, since inserting zygomatic implants needs to be done using a special surgical technique. The procedure can only be performed by a well-experienced surgeon specialized in maxillofacial surgery.

What Is the Best Thing about This Technique?

Zygomatic implants have quite a few advantages, but what really seems to make it stand out is the fact it does not require bone graft, a procedure which many patients with weakened jawbone want to avoid at all costs. Why is this procedure so unpleasant?

Well, bone grafting is a separate surgical procedure which includes taking bone from one part of your body, in this case, usually the hip, and using it to repair the damaged jawbone.

So, with zygomatic implants you can avoid this secondary surgery, also often done at a different location. Bone grafting procedure oftentimes requires and extensive recovering period and in general is not the most pleasant nor convenient process, so it is great news if it can be avoided with equally successful results.

What Are the Other Benefits of Zygomatic Implants?

Of course, there are other benefits of these implants over the traditional ones, such as time saving. Namely, the standard implant procedure requires the period between nine and twelve months, if it includes bone grafting.

On the other hand, it takes between four and six months to complete the entire process of inserting the zygomatic implants. The patients with advanced maxillary bone loss can have the prosthesis fitted immediately after the surgery since it not necessary to wait through the long recovery period after the bone grafting.

Not so many clinical visits are required, and the entire procedure is overall less invasive. Similar to the increasingly popular All-on-4 implants, the entire final procedure can be completed in just one day, with a single procedure.

Finally, numerous clinical studies have shown that the zygomatic implant procedure bleeding index, plaque index and probing pocket depths do not significantly differ from the standard procedures results, and that this type of procedure is equally effective.

These implants are certainly nobody’s first choice, not when regular and simpler procedures are available. However, for those whose situation makes other options unavailable, it is great to know that the industry is always innovating and enabling new things to happen.