What do you do when there is a small space between lower front teeth and you need a mini dental implant? There are lots of choices out there, IMTEC MDI, Intra Lock, OCO Biomedical, HiOssen...all these companies make a nice mini dental implant.
In this case I decided to try the Ace Surgical miniMarkMini Prep Implant. It is 2.3mm in diameter and comes in various lengths. The tooth in the center of the photograph was not restorable and had 360 degrees of decay.
X ray of lower incisor that will be extracted and a Ace Surgical miniMark mini prep implant will be placed.
Following our standard protocol of extracting teeth with periotomes or Golden Misch forceps the tooth was removed with little trauma to the gum and bone. You will notice in subsequent pictures the lack of blood or having to cut the gum to place the mini dental implant for the final crown.
Mini Mark mini prep implant in its sterile container.
To place the mini mark implant the step drill was used to make a initial entry point to the bone. Due to the adjacent teeth a drill extender was used to 'get around' those teeth and into the bone. The mini mark placement kit does not include this drill extender. Make certain you have one on hand or consider a different implant placement kit.
mini Mark mini prep implant is now in the extraction site and fully seated using the contrangle implant motor and drill extender.
I could not find on the distributors web page (Henry Schein Dental Supply) the restorative components for this mini implant system.
Most other mini dental implant manufacturers offer:
lab analogs
impression copings
temporary crown copings and/or comfort caps
This could be a limitation for easeof use for the miniMark mini prep system.
But we are not so easily frustrated and decided to come up with our own solution...not as easy as other mini dental implants but will work.
I decided to take an ION crown form one size smaller than needed to fashion my 'own temporary coping.'
The Dr. Patel miniMark temporary coping in place. I cemented in over the miniMark mini prep with Temp Bond Clear and teased it on and off during the setting phase. Notice how nice we were able to get the ION crown to fit around the gum and miniMark mini prep implant. This could have also been done with Jet Arcylic as it will bond to the ION crown forms. The key is to create a coping that will form the gum tissue during the healing phase.
A few dabs of bonding agent, some composite was placed over the ion crown and a temporary crown that could come on and off was fabricated. The patient will return in 12 weeks for a tissue and implant assessment.
Final X-ray of the miniMark mini prep implant in the extraction site for a lower incisor crown. There needs to be at minimum 3mm past the apex of the root that was extracted to provide stability and enough bone to secure the dental implant.
Final Thoughts
I think the mini Mark implant will work just fine. What the General Dentist will need to assess is what kind of cases would he/she like to do? If doing more than just a 2.3mm implant then one must consider a different implant system. If doing a Locator style overdenture and a small implant here and there only then the ACE Surgical miniMark system will work.
My challenge to General Dentists is why limit yourself to this? There are several mini dental implant systems that allow you to move forward in your implant choices, styles, features and sizes. You can get the proper training and open up a world of possibilities to improve your patients lives and make dentistry exciting everyday.
There are several good mini dental implant courses out there; find out which one is for you and get started. As they say: 'The hardest part of getting started is.....getting started'
Paresh B Patel DDS
Notice how thin the bone is. If we did not have the option of using mini dental implants then either this case would not have been possible or the patient would have to have an additional surgical procedure to expand the bone or add a block of bone to the existing lower jaw. Both of which will increase expense, time, healing and discomfort.
It would not need any pre surgery to accommodate dental implants. With some planning with Jon Younce CDT at First Impressions Dental Lab a logical progression treatment plan was formulated that was restorative driven. 
also showed good bone with the sinus cavity totally dropped down where the back teeth were in the upper jaw. There was also a retained set of root tips that would need to be removed on the upper right.
No additional impression copings or lab analogs were used. With mini dental implants we can create a more efficient and cost effective solution for patients by reducing parts and pieces that are normally required with traditional dental implants.
Mini Dental Implants with the 12 units of bridge work cemented over them. Our plan is to do a lower mini dental implant overdenture that will be converted to a bridge over time as $$ can be invested.
