The use of short-length endosseous implants and an overdenture with prefabricated conical crowns in the extremely resorbed mandible

A 63-year-old female patient with extremely resorbed edentulous mandible (12 mm height in anterior area) was referred to the Department of Prosthetic Dentistry with problems with lower denture (insufficient retention, pain, difficulties with eating and speech). The patient was treated in two steps: fist was implantation of four short-length (9.5 mm high ANKYLOS A- Dentsply, Friadent Germany) endosseous implants. After osseointegration period of 3 months and loss of one implant in first month after surgery, overdenture was made on so-called SynCone abutments (SynCone Ankylos-system, Dentsply, Friadent Germany), consist of two cones with 4 degree angle. This pre-fabricated conical system provides excellent stability and retention of overdenture and, due to the pre-fabricated implant components, the quality of final prosthetic work is not influenced by any dental or dental-technical source of error. Control X- ray after 4 years shows that, besides good clinical function and patient satisfaction, the implants are without bone lost and without inflammation. This case is interesting because it is a clinical evidence of successful prosthetic treatment with overdenture supporting with only 3 short-length implants (protocol is minimum of 4 short implants), combined with conical crown system which provide good stability and retention of overdenture.