Abstract
Objective. Early prosthodontic therapy (usually at around 18 years of age) often leads to early loss of teeth and in extreme cases to complete loss of dentition at between 40 and 50 years of age.
Patients. This report describes the clinical features of two middle-aged cleft patients.
Edentulous maxilla with cleft defect was treated with 6 implants supported by fixed appliance. Results.
Treatment of the whole dental arch on the basis of implants is currently frequently used as it provides a possibility of thorough functional and aesthetic therapy to a patient. The biomechanics of the reconstruction enables individual adjustment of the shape of the dental arch.
Conclusions. The problem in cleft patients involves other diameter relations in the dental arch caused by the defect alone or also by affecting the growth of the maxillary segment by surgery.
A potentially removable framework is therefore the main method of choice because the position of the implants must be prosthetically modified.