Excessive trimming of the post in the mouth will reduce its height and/or width, and therefore its effectiveness as a support. Major alterations should be done outside the mouth prior to final seating. In most cases, the ability to bend or twist the neck of the post obviates the necessity for extensive remodeling of the post with burs.

Pre-Mental Foramina Bladevents

Here the reference is to that anterior site immediately in front of the foramen. In some partially edentulous cases, there may be enough bone above the foramen in the second bicuspid region to accept various designed bladevents (1). This bladevent comes in double-posted designs (2), the posts of which minimize occlusal stresses by sharing them, or single-posted designs (3). Because abutment posts ideally should be centered under the restoration, not all interproximally (4), the single-posted implant is sometimes prosthodontically more desirable than the double-posted in the anterior region.

The decision to use a bladevent mesial to the mental foramen or above it depends upon several factors. The implant design must sometimes be made asymmetrical to avoid the mental foramen making it not as well-balanced as are symmetrical designs (5) . Further-more, bone bordering the mental foramen (6) is more fragile than that in the canine pillar region. Thus the shallow end of the blade-vent with less surface for contacting bone is set in an area with fewer and thinner trabeculae.

When the choice exists, it is preferable to set a symmetrical de-sign (7) more anteriorly in firmer bone anterior to the foramen

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