Immediate Implant Placement to the Rescue A Case Report

A waiting period of 12 months or longer to allow total socket healing used to be accepted protocol for placing implants. The processes of modeling and remodeling that occur following tooth extraction (loss) result in pronounced resorption of the various components of the alveolar ridge. The resorption of the buccal plate is more pronounced than that of palatal/lingual wall and hence the center of the ridge will move in the palatal/lingual direction. In the extreme case, the entire alveolar process may be lost following tooth loss. This paradigm has been challenged within the last decade by reducing the time between tooth extraction and implant placement. New protocols have been developed in which implants are placed at the time of extraction of the tooth, or soon after, before significant bone resorption occurs, known as immediate implants. Immediate implant placement is now accepted in clinical dentistry for reconstruction of partially or completely edentulous mandible or maxilla.