All-on-6 Implants

Not automatically. It is better for some jaws and unnecessary for others, and the scan is what separates the two. Six implants distribute bite force across more points and shorten the cantilever — the section of bridge that extends behind the last implant. That reduces stress on the components and the bone. It also means the arch can usually survive the loss of one implant. But All-on-4 is one of the best-documented protocols in modern implant dentistry, and in adequate bone it is highly predictable. Where four will carry the arch, six adds surgery, cost and exposure without adding benefit. We decide from bone volume, bone density and where the force falls when you bite. If your scan supports four, we will tell you that even though six is the larger invoice.

Yes. You leave your first visit with a fixed temporary bridge already in place. It is screwed onto the implants rather than resting on your gums, so it does not move, does not need adhesive, and does not come out at night. You eat with it, speak with it and fly home with it. What it is not is the final result. The temporary is lighter and less refined than the definitive bridge, and it is designed to be worn while the implants integrate. Soft food for the first weeks protects the healing underneath it.

Because the implants are not yet holding. Loading a final bridge onto implants that have not integrated is how full-arch cases fail. After placement, bone grows into the implant surface over three to six months. Until that has happened, the implant is held by the mechanical grip of surgery rather than by biology. A fixed temporary is light and designed to be forgiving of that; a definitive bridge is not. There is also a practical reason. Your gums change shape as they heal after extractions and surgery. A final bridge measured in week one would no longer fit the mouth it was made for by month three. Any clinic advertising a permanent full arch in a single week is either describing a temporary bridge as final, or loading implants early and accepting the risk on your behalf.

Yes, and any clinic telling you otherwise is worth questioning. The first visit covers the surgical work: extractions where needed, the six implants, and the fixed temporary bridge. The second covers the definitive restoration, measured and fitted once the foundation is solid. Between them is the healing period, and that happens at home. There is nothing to attend in Tirana during those months. We would rather be straight about the two visits at the quotation stage than have you discover the second one after you have already committed.

It is worth a second look before you accept that, because a great deal depends on how the assessment was made. Full-arch techniques exist largely to work around bone loss. Angling the rear implants forward lets them engage the denser bone toward the front of the jaw while still supporting the back of the arch, which is often what removes the need for grafting altogether. A panoramic X-ray cannot show this. It flattens a curved jaw into one plane and tells you very little about width. A 3D CT scan measures height, width and density at every proposed implant site. Sometimes the answer is still that a graft is needed. If so, we say it before you travel and plan it as its own step, rather than discovering it mid-treatment.

MegaGen is our primary system, with Straumann as the secondary option where a case calls for it. Both are established manufacturers with long clinical records and full component availability, which matters more than most patients realise. A full arch depends on screws, abutments and parts that have to remain obtainable years from now. Obscure or unbranded implants can become unserviceable when the manufacturer moves on, and at that point a repairable problem becomes a replacement. Whichever system your case uses is written on your quotation before you commit. If a clinic will not tell you what they are placing in your jaw, that is information in itself.

Either an acrylic hybrid or monolithic zirconia, and you choose with the trade-offs in front of you. An acrylic (PMMA) hybrid is a titanium framework faced with acrylic teeth and gum. It costs less and weighs less, but the acrylic surface wears and generally needs relining or replacing every five to seven years. Zirconia is milled from a single block — ours comes from Zirkonzahn in South Tyrol. It resists wear, staining and chipping far better, looks closer to natural teeth, and typically runs ten to fifteen years or more before refurbishment. For patients with heavy bite forces, which is frequently the same group for whom six implants are indicated in the first place, zirconia is usually the better match.

Eventually yes, and considerably better than with a denture. A full denture returns only a fraction of natural chewing power because it rests on gum tissue that was never built to carry load. An implant-anchored arch transmits force into bone, the way teeth do. Most patients get most of their bite back. The sequence matters though. Soft food while the temporary bridge is in place and the implants are integrating, then a normal diet once the definitive bridge is fitted. Very hard items — ice, bones, nut shells — are worth avoiding permanently, with zirconia as much as with anything else.

On six implants, it is usually recoverable without losing the arch. This is one of the real arguments for the technique. An arch carried on six points can often continue functioning on five while the failed site is cleaned, allowed to heal and re-implanted. On four, the same loss is a much larger problem. Failure is uncommon and it clusters around identifiable causes: smoking, uncontrolled diabetes, poor hygiene, and loading implants before they are ready. It usually shows up early, during the integration period, rather than years later. If an implant fails during integration in a case we planned and placed, we deal with it. That is the point of a warranty being written down rather than implied.

Yes. It is the single biggest factor within your control, and for full-arch work the stakes are higher than for a single implant. Implants depend on blood supply to the bone around them. Nicotine constricts exactly those vessels, and the heat and chemistry of smoking impair healing at the surgical site directly. Smokers have measurably higher implant failure rates — one of the most consistent findings in implant dentistry. We will still treat you. But stopping for two weeks before surgery and through the first month after it changes your odds meaningfully, and with six implants and a full arch riding on the outcome, we would rather say so plainly.

Around five to seven days for the first visit, and a shorter stay for the second. The first visit carries the surgical work and the fitting of the temporary bridge, with review appointments in between, so it is worth allowing the full week rather than compressing it. Most patients find the days between appointments are their own. The second visit is measurement, manufacture and fitting of the definitive bridge, with adjustment appointments to get the bite right. We confirm the exact schedule once your 3D scan is reviewed, because extractions and any grafting change it. You get the dates before you book travel, not after.