Using dental implants in the prosthetic rehabilitation of patients with cleft defect type II.

A dental implant may be used in prosthetic tooth reconstruction in cleft patients. There are three main indications for this approach: substitution of a missing single tooth, an abutment for the framework, and an abutment for a fixed dental prosthesis (we designate these as defect types I, II, and III). A clinical report about prosthetic rehabilitation using dental implants instead of a fixed or removable partial prosthesis is presented. A patient with a unilateral cleft defect was treated at the University Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic. Together with a missing lateral incisor, the defect was associated with agenesis of the two upper canines and three second premolars. The treatment was completed by prosthetic dental reconstruction using the framework with a dental implant as an abutment. This approach allowed minimizing the preparation of adjacent teeth to a single tooth functioning as the second abutment. If classical fixed prosthodontics had been performed, the preparation would have involved a larger group of intact teeth with the risk of their viability loss. The procedure had no complications. The outcome was of high quality and brought satisfaction to the patient.