David Hudnall

By David Hudnall, DMD

 

The success of any implant-supported denture begins with design engineering. Improved case outcomes for a hybrid denture with titanium bar to provide support begin with deciding on the best choice for final restoration and working backward, creating manageable clinical and laboratory steps that can be sequentially achieved.

These steps begin with proper implant alignment and parallelism that allows multiple implants to be joined for unified denture strength and stability, helping your edentulous patients with their dental devices.

Advantages of Hybrid Denture with Titanium Bar

Milled titanium bars are the ideal solution for all-on-X and overdenture cases because they help to distribute the forces of mastication to all implants while allowing for slight cantilevering of the denture toward the posterior of the denture teeth, improving overall denture stability.

Aside from merely providing maximum prosthetic stability of the restoration, a hybrid denture with a titanium bar offers a number of other benefits that we will discuss.

Enhanced Durability

Titanium is an excessively hard material that provides excellent support and security, preventing screw retained hybrid dentures from being dislodged by rotational forces or lateral movements.

The titanium bar itself can last a lifetime and may be repaired or modified via laser welding as treatment needs change.

Improved Aesthetics

When a hybrid denture with a titanium bar is employed, the bar naturally takes up space, which can affect the aesthetic outcome of the case. The computer-aided design allows the bar to be constructed while keeping the proposed final restoration in mind, creating a hybrid denture with ideal bar placement for maximum mechanics and aesthetic appeal.

For cases with limited space where the bar may show through the final restoration, the titanium bar may be anodized, taking on a gold hue in order to minimize shadowing through the denture acrylic or zirconia.

Clinical Advantages

Titanium is one of the most biocompatible materials known to man and is the same material that most dental implants are made from, making it an affordable implant solution. Patients who have allergies to other metals commonly used in dentistry tolerate titanium well in their denture setup. In highly polished form, titanium framework its surface is easily cleaned and maintained, making home care less of an issue.

Large-span substructures are error-prone to fabricate and don’t always yield a passive fit when conventional casting techniques are utilized. CAD/CAM is an invaluable tool for manufacturing precise components that interlock correctly with minimal adjustments or revisions. The beauty of computer-aided design is it allows modeling of the prosthesis and takes into account the dimensions of the restorative prosthesis material selected, ensuring optimal material thickness and dimensions for both the titanium bar and the removable prostheses or screw-retained hybrid denture for a long-lasting restoration.

The subtractive milling technique associated with CAD/CAM bar design and processing ensures that the metal substructure has optimal density and homogeneity without bubbles or flaws that can lead to fracture or metal fatigue under occlusal loading. In addition, the computerized configuration of this process ensures reproducible results and irreproachable passive insertion of the titanium substructure. Making the screw retained denture setup function flawlessly.

Best Uses of Hybrid Dentures with Titanium Bar

Hybrid dentures with titanium bar are versatile and ideal for securing removable dentures to:

  • a Hadar bar with clips,
  • a Dolder Bar,
  • an attachment bar for many different types of locator or ball-style attachments,
  • a wrap-around bar that allows for future relining of the removable denture,
  • or a screw-retained appliance using a Montreal bar designed to accept a non-removable denture or a full-arch zirconia bridge.

Methods of Delivery

CAD/CAM has made the entire process of fabricating and delivering a hybrid denture with a titanium bar much easier by eliminating the placement and removal of many analog abutment parts in order to capture intermediate impressions and records for mounting jigs. Because digital records are preserved, the original digital impressions may be referred to throughout the entire fabrication process, eliminating many fit-associated inaccuracies.

Most dentists will choose to try the completed titanium bar, checking for proper alignment and a passive fit. Equally important is a follow-up try-in of the proposed final restoration attached to bar, allowing for any corrections or revisions to be made prior to processing. Doing this ensures minimal adjustments upon delivery.

Provided that the try-in of the bar and final denture were accurate, delivery of the bar and restoration should be a matter of removing existing abutments or cover screws from the implants, positioning the component parts, and tightening the proven replacement into place.

Utilizing Digital Dentistry

Because CAD/CAM technology utilizes digital models and exact measurements for an accurate fit, fewer steps are left to chance. An advanced dental lab with an automated digital workflow has the ability to streamline your restorative treatment by making the formerly time-consuming process of fabricating an implant-supported hybrid denture with bar attachment a breeze, saving considerable time, consumable materials, and reducing the number of analog steps required at each intermediary stage.

And, because the milled bar and the restoration can be virtually designed at the same time, your patient is assured of receiving the best possible clinical outcome.

Effective Practice with Stomadent Dental Lab

Why trust a complex case involving a hybrid denture with titanium bar to just any dental lab? Stomadent Dental Lab has the experience and expertise to make your life easier by shortening appointments and eliminating multiple shipments of analog models at each step along the way.

The benefits and convenience of advanced technology speak for themselves, allowing you to deliver your case in less time with fewer hurdles. Stomadent truly is your partner for prosthetic dentistry and is an extension of your office for all things related to implant dentures!

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