Lisbon based Malo Clinic is planning to start its first clinic in Chennai next month to offer fixed teeth to Indian patients through a unique surgical technique called All-on-4 dental implant procedure as a commercially viable option to conventional implant treatment requiring bone graft.

All-on-4 basically means All-teeth-on-4-dental-implants. Complete All-on-4 procedure costs between Rs. 2.5 lakh and Rs. 3 lakh much less than a bone graft costs.

Bone grafting for dental implants involves harvesting and using large quantities of the patient’s own bone (autogenous grafts). There are a number of factors that can increase a person’s potential need for a bone graft procedure. Patients who postpone the decision to replace a missing tooth may end up with significant bone deterioration unsuitable for an implant. Factors like gum disease, injuries and congenital birth conditions can further aggravate bone loss.

Bone graft as of date is a lengthy procedure, takes months and is costly. Its success rate is low in aged population. Therefore, older people normally go for dentures (artificial teeth). All-on-4 procedure offers fixed teeth in one day to patients at less cost with high success rate.

Once teeth are lost, the jaws quickly atrophy to a level of what is called basal bone. In cases of a complete loss of teeth, this can leave behind only a narrow hoop of bone in the mandible (lower jaw) or a flat pancake of bone in the maxilla (upper jaw). It entails extravagant and often complicated hospital based procedures to address this atrophy and attempt to rebuild the jaws to a point where the patient could get either dental implants and teeth or even comfortably wear dentures.

It is also estimated that over 25 crore population of the country over the age of 25 years has one or more missing teeth. Out of this approximately 6 crore people has no teeth present. Of these 6 crore patients with no teeth, approximately 40-50 per cent are treated with removable dentures as a treatment option, while majority remain untreated, especially in the rural areas.

Dr. Paulo Malo founded Malo Clinic in 1995 and developed Malo Clinic protocol which is recognized worldwide by the dental and medical community as new standard in Fixed Oral Rehabilitation.

As part of this protocol, Dr. Malo invented and pioneered the concept of All-on-4 in dental implant which is poised to change the dental care dynamics in the country as entire implant procedure is completed in a day without several sittings which helps in saving time, money and is hassle-free for patients.

Malo Clinic also plans to open its clinics in other parts of the country mainly in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Delhi soon. Work on Mumbai Clinic has already begun.

There is less awareness about advanced dental care in India due to various socio-economic factors. Very small portion of the country’s population can afford such advanced dental surgery.

Says the innovator and pioneer in All-on-4 procedure Dr Paulo Malo, “We cannot do dental implant without the bone as roots of the teeth is in the bone. There is physical as well emotional feeling if you don’t have teeth as you can’t eat properly and feel depressed. Bone graft, is a lengthy and costly procedure. Therefore, older people normally go for denture. Patients have shared their experience positively about getting fixed teeth in just one day’s time through All-on-4.”

Malo Clinic has also partnered with Nobel Biocare- an innovative medical devices company for dental implant restoration in the world to propagate the surgical technique. Malo Clinic sold All-on-4 procedure exclusively to Nobel Biocare in 2000.

All-on-4 can only be done by the experienced dental surgeons and not by any other doctor entering the field as this technique demands certain skill set and experience apart from training on how to do this procedure. In India, there are more than 200 dental surgeons who are experienced enough to perform this breakthrough procedure. Dr. Malo is meeting and taking workshop with dental surgeons on All-on-4 technique during his India visit.

Nobel Biocare imports all the medical devices for dental implants from its facilities in US and Sweden. The protocol largely remains the same across the globe including India for dental implant.

“Indian government must act tough to inspect and ensure high level of hygiene and cleanliness in the dental clinics through strict rules and guidelines as they seem to give less attention to cleanliness which results into infection. European dental market is much more open and less controlled by lobbying than the United States (US) where one dentist from a particular state cannot practice in another state,” concludes Dr Malo.

It is observed that the prevalence of missing teeth is very high in the Indian population and varies from 60 per cent to 69 per cent of 25 years and above age group with studies revealing that over 91.2 per cent in elderly over age of 65 years have got missing teeth.