Mini Dental Implants and "Snap On" Dentures..What You Need To Know! 

Thank you kindly!

Thanks for the comment Jake! I have heard of that and know of dentists who do it. I personally do not do this treatment for certain reasons.

Hey Marguerite! You can but there's not a lot of indications for that. One may be if you have enough bone for standard implants in one area, but only enough bone for minis in other areas. However at that point it may make more sense to just do all minis. Thanks for asking!

You will still have to wait a period of time for the minis in order to integrate with the jaw bone! Everyone's timeline may be slightly different. Thanks for the comment!

@@askdocjoc9861 so in other words the mini's are not buried under the the gums and then revealed months later, it's just you can't use them as snap ins until they they integrate

@@megahipsmegahips731 Yep! There are circumstances that practitioners will snap a denture down immediately on the mini implants, however, it is my philosophy that it is safer for health and proper healing of the implant to wait until osseointegration has occurred!

Kat! Thanks for your comment. So the research is limited about the long term success rate of mini dental implants because they have only been used as a long term treatment option for about a decade (where as standard dental implants have been used a lot longer and thus more research with regards to success has been done). Before that they were used as "temporary" implants while the standard implants were healing and were removed after healing, but what they found is often the "Temporary" mini implants were healing with the bone just as well as the standard. There are some studies that have shown success rates for minis in lower jaw above 90% or higher! It tends to be the case that many for failures, as is the case with standard size implants, in the upper jaw. This typically is attributed to the poor/soft bone quality seen in the upper jaw, and this issue is even harder to deal with when you're using a very small implant (harder to get great stability because less surface area in contact with bone). As is the case with both standard and mini dental implants, we can't know the exact life span as it is different from patient to patient. One person may have their implants for over 15 years, while another person may end up losing them at 5 years. There is no way to predict this. The best that can be done is properly care for them both professionally and at home to help increase the chance of longevity! When an implant fails (both standard and mini), or if bone "rejects" implant, it is possible there is an infection, but also possible that the implant failed to "osseointegrate" with the bone. These situations have to be properly examined by your dental provider. Thanks for your question!

i just got quoted $29,000 for upper and lower snaps; includes bone grafting, temp set of reg dentures and permanent ones. Also my extractions, this was the total cost. Going on Tuesday to make the appt. after much research on both. My decision came down to having someone very close in case of any emergency. half hr drive. I need that for assurance.

Hey Chelsea! Feel free to call our office and discuss with our implant coordinator!

Hi Savannah. I just saw this post. I got mini dental implants in 2019. 6 on top & 4 on bottom. I have the snap in style with horseshoe top ones. My total cost was $10,000. $800 per mini implant, coming to $3200, but my dentist threw in 2 free ones on top. The dentures were over $2000 per denture & they are crap! I had 2 bottom wisdom teeth removed before any of this was done, otherwise it would've been cheaper. I now wish I would've gotten just the teeth style instead of the denture style. The bottom don't fit right & they have been remade 3 times now! I don't wear the bottom ones at all. I only wear the top when I go somewhere, otherwise here at home I don't wear at all. I have 1 implants on top on left side that you can barely see, why I have no idea, & it hurts like hell when I snap my denture in place cuz of it. Do plenty of research h before getting these. I used to wear regular dentures with fixodent to hold them in. I got dentures in 1997 for the first time. I was only 32. Good luck & I hope I helped you a little.

Correction, I have 8 minis on top, not 6.