Prosthodontics (Dental Implants & Restorations)
Dental implants and full-mouth restorations that look and feel natural.
Most dental patients have never heard the word prosthodontist — even people who've been seeing a dentist their whole lives. A prosthodontist is a dental specialist who spent three extra years after dental school studying how to plan and rebuild complex tooth structures. That includes crowns, bridges, implants, dentures, and full-mouth cases where multiple things need to be rebuilt at the same time. At Monteluz Dental Specialty Group in San Bernardino, our board-certified prosthodontist handles the restorative and planning side of your care — figuring out what your mouth needs, in what order, and how each piece fits together so the final result actually holds up. If your general dentist has referred you to a specialist, or if you've been putting off treatment because you weren't sure where to start, this is the right place to begin.
What Is a Prosthodontist?
A general dentist can fill cavities, do cleanings, and handle most routine care. But when a mouth needs significant reconstruction — multiple missing teeth, worn-down surfaces, failing restorations, or a bite that's shifted over years — a general dentist is working outside their core training. A prosthodontist is a dentist who completed an accredited three-year residency specifically in the restoration and replacement of teeth. The focus is on function and structure: how forces distribute across your bite, how a crown interacts with the tooth next to it, how a full-arch restoration needs to be designed so it doesn't fail in two years. The American College of Prosthodontists estimates there are fewer than 3,500 board-certified prosthodontists in the country. We have one here in San Bernardino. For patients in the Inland Empire who need more than a filling, that matters.
When You Need a Prosthodontist
You might need a prosthodontist if you have more than one or two teeth that are missing, broken, or severely worn. You might also need one if you've had prior dental work that hasn't held up — crowns that keep coming off, a partial denture that doesn't fit right, or implants that were placed without a clear plan for the final restoration. Prosthodontists are also the right choice when a case involves multiple specialties. If you need bone grafting or extractions before you can get implants, that's oral surgery. The actual implant post is a surgical procedure. But designing what goes on top — and making sure the whole case is planned before anyone picks up a drill — that's prosthodontics. Starting with a prosthodontist means your treatment gets mapped out as a whole, not pieced together one appointment at a time.
Full-Mouth Rehabilitation
Full-mouth rehabilitation is a term for cases where most or all of the teeth need to be rebuilt — not because of one event, but because of years of decay, missed dental care, acid erosion, grinding, or a combination of all of these. We see this regularly among patients in San Bernardino and Fontana who went years without access to affordable dental care, or who had to put off treatment because of cost. By the time they come to us, the damage is significant — but it's rarely beyond repair. Full-mouth rehabilitation starts with a comprehensive exam and imaging. Then the prosthodontist maps out a sequenced treatment plan: what needs to come out, what can be saved, what order the work happens in, and what the final result should look like. The plan might involve implants, crowns, bridges, and dentures — coordinated so nothing is wasted and nothing has to be redone.
Implant Restorations and Crowns
When most people think of dental implants, they picture the titanium post that gets placed in the jaw. That's the surgical side — our oral surgeon handles that here on-site. But the implant post itself is only the foundation. The crown, bridge, or arch that gets attached to it — that's the restoration, and that's prosthodontics. A poorly designed restoration on a well-placed implant will still fail. The shape has to be right for your bite. The contacts between neighboring teeth have to be precise. For full-arch cases like All-on-4, the entire prosthetic arch needs to be engineered to distribute chewing forces correctly over the implants underneath. Our prosthodontist designs and delivers these restorations, including single crowns, implant-supported bridges, and replacements of older restorations that weren't done well the first time.
Dentures and Removable Prosthetics
Dentures have a reputation problem — mostly because people associate them with poor fit. A lot of that comes from dentures that weren't designed carefully, or weren't adjusted as the jaw changed over time. Our prosthodontist approaches removable prosthetics the same way as any other restoration: with the functional requirements first. We offer complete dentures, partial dentures for patients who still have anchor teeth, and implant-supported dentures for patients who want more stability. For patients coming in from Rialto, Colton, or Redlands who are struggling with ill-fitting dentures from another provider, we can evaluate what you have and tell you whether a reline or a full remake makes more sense.
Working With Your Other Specialists
One of the most frustrating things patients tell us is that they saw three different providers, got three different opinions, and ended up more confused than when they started. At Monteluz, our prosthodontist and oral surgeon work in the same practice. That means when a case requires both surgery and restoration — which most complex cases do — the two providers are coordinating before your treatment starts, not passing notes after the fact. Your prosthodontist leads the overall treatment plan. Surgical work, when it's needed, happens here with our oral surgeon. You don't get sent across town.
Schedule a Consultation
If you're in San Bernardino, Fontana, Rialto, Colton, or Redlands and you need a specialist evaluation — for implants, full-mouth rebuilding, dentures, or anything more complicated than a basic filling — we have same-week consultations available. We accept Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal, along with most major dental insurance plans. Our team is bilingual in English and Spanish. Call us at (909) 567-2024 or use the appointment form on this page to get scheduled.
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Ready to be seen by a specialist?
Same-week appointments available. Most insurances accepted.