Optimal restoration of dental esthetics and function with advanced implant-supported prostheses: a clinical report.

For more than 25 years, computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technology has been used in implant restorative dentistry. Today this technology offers a means of milling titanium frameworks that fit dental implants accurately. This report presents a restoratively driven protocol employing advanced implant restorative and surgical techniques. Treatment of a patient with advanced periodontitis with extensive loss of hard and soft tissues is presented. After extraction of the patient's remaining hopeless teeth, dental implants were placed, along with interim, fixed-margin abutments and abutment protection caps. Two days later, acrylic resin fixed-interim prostheses restored the patient's esthetics and partial masticatory function. After implant osseointegration, maxillary, and mandibular frameworks for definitive prostheses were milled from Ti alloy, using one specific CAD/CAM technology. The benefits of this technology are also discussed.