By Dr. Azim Malik Specialist Periodontist and Implant Surgeon

WHAT ARE IMPLANTS IN A DAY?

Implants in a day basically means we take out the teeth that are going to come out anyway.

We remove those teeth and we place implants in and around whatever bone is left.

We also use some bone substitute material to fill in the gaps.

How do one day dental implants work?

Imagine a screw going into a wall.

The screw engages.

And it’s the same with implants.

When the titanium screw is put into bone, it engages and it becomes solid.

It becomes stiff and it gets threaded into the bone.

And that force, that stiffness, is enough – in many cases – to give patients a temporary set of teeth on the day.

Smile in a day

So, at this point, the patient has:

+ Had all their teeth out + Received implants on the day + Received a little bit of bone grafting on the day + Received a temporary set of teeth that go on top of these implants.

We then tell the patient they will be on a relatively “softer” diet for eight to 12 weeks – and definitely for the first six to eight weeks.

That basically gives time for the implants to integrate into the bone.

Once the implants are integrated into the bone, the patients come back and we can change their temporary set of “teeth”.

And we start making them a permanent set that fits much better.

So the period between the temporary set of teeth and the permanent set of teeth is about 12 weeks.

And three months is the amount of time you need for an implant to integrate into the bone.

HOW MUCH DO IMPLANTS IN A DAY COST?

It's a very popular concept but patients should not be confused – if it's too good to be true, it usually is.

And there are loads of companies that are doing full arch – upper or lower – treatment for as little as £6,000 or £9,000 per arch – or £15,000 if you go for upper and lower.

Usually those companies are cutting corners somewhere.

For example, they could be using an implant that's slightly cheaper – not necessarily bad – but cheaper.

Let’s put it this way…

A Bentley, no matter where you go in the world, will be expensive.

But the price for a Toyota is different in different countries.

And the support that you get with a Bentley across the world is going to be different to the support you get from a lesser car.

So it can make a huge difference.

One day dental implants cost

So dentists offering these cheaper deals may also be using cheaper materials.

The longevity of these implant prosthesis can become compromised as a result.

Typically you should be expecting to pay at least a minimum of £18,000 for one arch.

So when someone's doing it for £9,000 – that’s 50% cheaper.

Something there is not right.

Is implants in a day for me?

Implants in a day is different to standard implant treatment.

Remember most patients don't need all their teeth replaced.

They only need one or two teeth replaced, in which case we take the tooth out, we let it heal for three months and we go and put the implant in solid bone.

Implants in a day is where all of a patient’s teeth have to go – and they don't want to be in a position where they are without teeth at any point in time.

So that’s where teeth in a day comes in.