Placement of implants to preserve existing dental prostheses

The prosthetic restoration of a reduced dentition with removable partial dentures, which are only supported by the remaining teeth without implants, is still a standard therapy. Patient acceptance is usually good. One of the most common complications is the loss of terminal abutment teeth, which increases the load on the remaining abutment teeth and also puts them at risk. In cases with anterior teeth that have not yet been included in the prosthesis, new restorations that are both invasive and expensive are often considered necessary. In addition, the existing prosthesis to which the patient is well-adjusted is replaced with a new prosthesis that requires new adaptation. The older the patient is, the more likely it is that adaptation problems will arise. Depicting exemplary patient cases, this article shows how existing removable partial dentures can be retained in the case of abutment tooth loss in their original form at relatively low cost by inserting implants and simple retention elements. This can be very beneficial, especially in geriatric patients.