Part 1 | Dental Implants & Orthodontics

Orthodontic clinicians have sought for more than six decades to use skeletal anchorage via a vis surgical screws^1-2 implants,³ onplants,⁴ bone plates⁵ and temporary anchorage devices^6-11 to augment ordinary orthodontic anchorage.

Aside from the orthodontic anchorage, these osseous- supported devices offer clinicians, they also offer restorative dentists with solutions for missing teeth.^12-14 Hypodontia is relatively common in people of European descent. Upper lateral incisors are found to be missing (2%) of the time, with lower second premolars and upper second premolars missing (3%), with a higher prevalence in females than in males.^15-16 These spaces must either be closed orthodontically or filled with replacement prosthetics such as dental implants. Dental implants have been an exciting and successful way to replace missing teeth.¹⁷

The plethora of osseous supported devices has caused some confusion among the dental profession as well as the laity as to which device might offer patients the best alternative for their dental needs. This article seeks to make a case for the use of mini-implants as both a source of anchorage for orthodontics as well as retainers for fixed restorations concurrently in the same patient. (This article is the first of a two-part series. In the next issue, we will present step-by-step coverage of placement and restoring of mini dental implants with various prosthetic protocols.)