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What is an Implant Crown and Bridge restoration from ROE Dental Laboratory, and how is it constructed?

An Implant Crown and Bridge restoration replaces one or more missing teeth by attaching a custom prosthesis to a dental implant rather than to a prepared natural tooth. Unlike a conventional crown that seats over tooth structure, an implant restoration connects to the implant platform through an abutment and a retaining screw, so the construction details (how it attaches and what sits between the implant and the ceramic) drive much of the clinical decision making.

ROE is a full-service laboratory and fabricates implant restorations in both of the two standard retention designs, and with either a stock or a custom abutment beneath the crown.

Screw-retained design In a screw-retained restoration, a screw passes through the crown and threads directly into the implant (or into an abutment that is integral to the crown), securing the prosthesis to the implant platform. The screw access channel is later sealed with teflon tape or a cotton pellet plus cured composite resin. The key clinical advantage is retrievability: the restoration can be unscrewed for maintenance or adjustment. Because access is through the occlusal or lingual surface, care must be taken to monitor for cracks or chips around the access hole.

Cement-retained design In a cement-retained restoration, an abutment is screwed and torqued into the implant first, and the crown is then cemented onto that abutment much like a conventional crown. This design produces excellent esthetics with no visible access hole and allows optimal contours and emergence profiles, but it demands meticulous removal of excess cement because retained subgingival cement is a documented driver of peri-implantitis.

Ti-base versus custom milled abutment Beneath the crown, ROE can supply either a stock ti-base or a custom milled abutment. A ti-base is a stock part that originates from the implant company: it is a smaller abutment that the crown is bonded onto, and the assembly is then cemented chairside. A custom milled abutment is machined in-house from a solid titanium blank, and the geometry is designed specifically for the case. ROE is an FDA-cleared facility to mill abutments in-house, so for most implant systems there is no added timing penalty for choosing the custom route.

Clinical rule of thumb: choose the retention design and abutment type before fabrication, because the records you capture and the way the crown is delivered both depend on that decision.

 

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