The Benefits of the All-On-Six™ Technique vs. All-On-Four™

Dr. Singh discusses the benefits of the All-On-Six™ Dental Implant technique over the popular All-On-Four™ Dental Implant technique.

Dr.Singh:

Without getting too technical about dental implant techniques, the All-On-Four™ technique means that two of the implants are angulated in each arch. That’s how dentists are able to use four implants, instead of six. Angulation (placing them on an angle, instead of vertically) is a procedure used with the All-On-Four™ technique. I don’t like that design. The studies aren’t as long. All-On-FourTM have been used on and off for about 8-10 years, and there have been some failures… mainly because you now have a shearing force on an angulated implant… and that force can potentially affect the implants bearing that force. I don’t use that design… I prefer to use 6 implants placed in vertical positions, because all the long-term studies were done using vertically placed implants. In most cases, if you look carefully, with such tools as advanced 3-D Cone Beam CAT Scan imaging technology, you can place 6 vertical implants. The long-term studies support the All-on-6 technique. I don’t know of any long term studies done on the use of 4 implants. In the future, it may very well be that the All-On-Four™ technique is adequate, but at this point, I believe that long-term success requires the use of 6 implants to support a complete upper or lower arch.