Question: Four months ago I had several implants placed up North. I planned
to have the crown and bridge work completed in Florida. While looking at the X-rays of the implants, my Florida dentist and I
commented on how the implants do not seem to be parallel to each other or to the adjacent teeth. Is this a problem?
Answer: Too many cooks spoil the dinner. You will often see this with implants. Although parallelism is a goal in implant placement, setting the implant into the maximum available bone can be just, if not more, important. Thankfully, we have "custom" abutments that are cast in the lab to compensate for a variety of odd angles of the implants. They create perfectly parallel posts to anchor crowns, bridges or dentures. A recent study in The Journal of the American Dental Association states that off-angled implants with custom angled abutments are equally successful as dead-on parallel ones and can result in lower fees and shorter treatment times by eliminating the need for guided bone grafting procedures. If you have any questions please give us a call 239-936-5252.