Jaw Growth: Is It Best To Wait Till This Is Complete and Before Implants Are Placed?

Dr. G. It is generally accepted that implants should be placed after most of the jaw growth has taken place. We used to take wrist films as an indicator of growth, but it is not a very good guide. Be aware that some mandibular growth may happen well after the teenage years. It might be prudent to graft the socket, place a space maintainer and wait a couple of years to place the implant

Just thinking about your case, had an idea... Why not place the implant and use either a temporary crown or healing abutment in the interim. After a few years go ahead with completion of the case?

Dr. Gelfand: If you do that and there is growth, you can have the same effect as seen in an ankylosed primary molar. I guess you can compensate later by fabricating a longer crown with a smaller crown/root ratio, but why do that?

Look at this post, especially Dr. Ganeles post and it may make things clear: http://www.osseonews.com/implants-in-young-patient-will-this-prevent-full-growth-of-maxilla/

The problem with inserting a dental implant into the alveolar process of a young person does not only lay within the confines of the probability of vertical growth inhibition but there are also problems with the shortage of the soft and hard tissues due to incomplete skeletal growth and development. The implant rehabilitation at the narrow, partially edentulous ridge often needs a stepwise improvement of both soft and hard tissue. Although both soft and hard tissue management is of equal importance in the full plan of reconstruction, bone graft at the deficient ridge should be considered prior to soft tissue management which necessitates a very serious decision making. The autogenous bone graft can provide the needed bone volume but it is very hard to find a donor site in a very young adolescent. The mandibular symphysis is not a reliable bone graft source in these cases, so, to serve as a dependable implant supporting tissue, the surgeon should think of one of the extraoral sites. In a young child, the iliac crest may still be cartilaginous rather than bony and harvesting a rib bears the danger of a pneumothorax and the resulting morbidity. The ridge width at the anterior maxilla substantially provides the need for the implant placement. However, the insufficiency in the ridge height could still be considered. Ridge splitting technique may widen the deficient area, and osteodistractors are potentially able in making new bone grow in the bone gap through the distraction osteogenesis process and help us to level the under-grown implant containing segment with the other parts of the alveolar process. A bidirectional floating distraction device has been advocated but, the long-term stability still needs to be confirmed.