Zygomatic Implants – Toms River NJ | No Bone for Implants?

Zygomatic Implants: Fixed Teeth When You’ve Been Told There Isn’t Enough Bone

Zygomatic implants are long dental implants that anchor into the cheekbone (the zygoma) instead of the upper jaw. Because the cheekbone is dense and almost never resorbs, zygomatic implants make fixed teeth possible for patients who have lost so much upper jaw bone that conventional implants and even bone grafting are no longer options.

If another practice has told you that you don’t have enough bone for implants, that you need years of grafting first, or that dentures are your only remaining choice, this page is written for you.

Who zygomatic implants are for

Dr. McDonald considers zygomatic implants for patients with severe upper jaw bone loss, typically in one of these situations:

• Long-term denture wearers. Once teeth are gone, the upper jaw resorbs steadily. After enough years there may be too little bone left in the back of the upper jaw to hold a conventional implant.
• Patients who have been turned down for All-on-4. Standard full-arch implants still require bone in the front of the upper jaw. When that bone is gone too, zygomatic implants can bypass it entirely.
• Failed grafts or failed implants. If a previous sinus lift or bone graft didn’t take, or a prior implant case failed, grafting again is not always the best next step.
• Severe bone loss from infection or prior surgery. Long-standing periodontal infection, or bone removed during earlier surgery, can leave the maxilla unable to support conventional implants.

Zygomatic implants are an upper-jaw solution only. The lower jaw does not resorb in the same way, and severe lower-jaw cases are approached differently.

How they’re different from conventional implants

A conventional dental implant is roughly 10 to 13 millimeters long and sits in the jawbone. A zygomatic implant is substantially longer — commonly 30 to 52 millimeters — and passes through or alongside the sinus to anchor in the cheekbone above.

That difference is what makes the procedure valuable and also what makes it demanding. It is one of the more technically complex procedures in implant surgery. It requires cone beam CT planning, a detailed understanding of the anatomy of the orbit and sinus, and specific training. Relatively few surgeons place them.

The advantage: skipping the graft

The conventional route to implants in a severely resorbed upper jaw is bone grafting — often a sinus lift, sometimes staged over several procedures, with six to twelve months of healing before implants can even be placed, and another period after that before teeth. Total time is frequently well over a year, with no guarantee the graft integrates.

Zygomatic implants anchor in bone that is already there. For appropriate candidates, that means:

• No sinus lift and no major bone grafting
• A single surgical procedure rather than a staged series
• Fixed provisional teeth typically placed within 24 hours of surgery, rather than months of healing in a denture

What the process looks like at our office

1. Consultation and 3D imaging. We take a cone beam CT scan in our Toms River office and map your remaining bone in three dimensions. This visit determines whether zygomatic implants are appropriate for you, or whether a less involved option would work just as well. We will tell you if you don’t need this procedure.

2. Digital planning. Your case is planned virtually before surgery using our intraoral scanner and photogrammetry workflow, so implant position is decided in advance rather than at the chair.

3. Surgery. The procedure is performed in our office under general anesthesia. Dr. McDonald completed roughly six months of dedicated general anesthesia training during his residency under direct anesthesiologist supervision, and our staff is trained in anesthesia monitoring.

4. Fixed teeth the same day. You don’t leave in a denture. As soon as the implants are placed, we
record their exact positions using photogrammetry, a camera-based system, that maps implant position in three dimensions to within a fraction of a millimeter, with no impression material and no tray. That data goes directly to the 3D printer in our office, where your provisional bridge is designed and printed while you’re still here. Before you go home, it’s screwed into place.

These are fixed teeth, not a denture resting on your gums. They stay in when you sleep and they stay in when you eat. You’ll be on a soft diet for 8-12 weeks while the implants integrate, and we’ll see you the following day to check everything.

5. Final restoration and follow-up.

Zygomatic implants in Toms River and the Jersey Shore

Most patients who need this procedure have been searching for a while, often traveling well outside their area to find someone who performs it. We see patients from throughout Ocean, Monmouth and Burlington Counties — Toms River, Brick, Lakewood, Manchester, Jackson, Forked River, Manahawkin, Barnegat and Point Pleasant among them.

You do not need a referral from your dentist to be seen.

Schedule a consultation

If you’ve been told implants aren’t possible for you, a consultation and 3D scan will tell you definitively whether that’s still true. Call 732-349-8400 to schedule with Dr. McDonald in Toms River.