Thin Ridge Case Studies

Thin Ridge - Knife Edge Ridge

Mr MC from hereford.  The 2D DPT image suggests that there is sufficient bone height in the maxilla to place six implants to support a full arch fixed restoration.

However, as is common in these cases, the thick palatal mucosa hides what the 3D image reveals to be a knife-edge ridge.  Because the buccal and palatal plates are seperate, it willl be impossible to split the ridge and place implants of sufficient dimension.  This will mitigate against immediate loading and require modification of the patient's denture to accommodate the increased width of the ridge following the ridge-splitting procedure.

Reducing the ridge to the point where it is wide enough to accommodate implants would leave us short of height and necessitate large volumes of pink material to replace the lost height.  It may then be impossible to provide a fixed cleansable solution.