Dental Implant Placement for Patients Taking Anticoagulants

If you are taking anticoagulants, and want or need a dental implant, is it possible?

Physicians usually prefer that their patients who are on anticoagulant therapy (eg.: Warfarin) not interrupt that therapy, since the dose has been carefully calibrated to the individual patient's condition.  For patients taking Warfarin, the risk of thromboembolism is reduced.  A report in the Journal of Oral Implantology suggests that a less invasive, "flapless" procedure is indicated in these cases, because it reduces the amount of bleeding during and after surgery.

We have been using the Nobel Guide procedures for many dental implant placements for several years.  It is a method in which, using a 3-D scan of the patient's mouth, the surgery is performed "virtually" on a computer first, and a rigid guide is fabricated to fit in the patient's mouth and be used at surgery.  With the guide fixed in place, the implants are placed through the guide without having to reflect the tissues.
As always, we discuss the patient's planned surgery and get approval from the patient's cardiologist prior to the procedure.

Robert G. Tupac, DDS, FACP, Inc., Diplomate, American Board of Prosthodontics (661) 325-1275 | www.drtupac.com 5060 California Ave., #170, Bakersfield, CA 93309

NobelGuide for the Upper Jaw

The Nobel Treatment 

NobelGuide is a treatment procedure which allows a patient to be treated from no teeth to a fixed bridge of teeth in one appointment.  Starting from wearing an upper full denture, this patient had a CT Scan of his upper jaw. By applying NobelGuide Procera software to the scan, the anatomy of his upper jawbone was visualized in three dimensions, allowing virtual placement of dental implants with a computer program. 

Planning and Implant Placement

In addition to planning implant placement, the computer program facilitated creation of a clear surgical guide, to be used for "flapless" implant placement. The temporary fixed bridge was fabricated in advance of the surgery also, so the bridge was placed at the same time as the implants.  This technique is predictable because the planning has revealed the anatomy under the soft tissue.  The resulting bridge enables immediate function with a beautiful esthetic result.

Robert G. Tupac, DDS, FACP, Inc., 
Diplomate, American Board of Prosthodontics
(661) 325-1275 | www.drtupac.com
5060 California Ave., #170, Bakersfield, CA 93309 (map)