The primary use of dental implants are to support dental prosthetics. Modern dental implants make use of osseointegration, the biologic process where bone fuses tightly to the surface of specific materials such as titanium and some ceramics. The integration of implant and bone can support physical loads for decades without failure.
People who have lost teeth might feel too self-conscious to smile or talk. Additionally, biting irregularities caused by tooth loss can have a negative effect on eating habits, leading to secondary health problems like malnutrition.
By replacing missing tooth roots, dental implants provide people with the strength and stability required to eat all the foods they love, without struggling to chew. Additionally, they help to stimulate and maintain jaw bone, preventing bone loss and helping to support facial features.
Your teeth are also in perfect harmony with one another, so if a tooth is removed then the tendency is for the adjacent teeth, and the opposing teeth to fall into the space where the old tooth was. Over time this can begin to affect your ability to chew and may also affect your bite. Bite problems can lead to difficulties eating and may also lead to headaches and other problems around the jaw.
This means that if you have teeth missing there is a biological and health reason to do everything you can to replace them, not to mention aesthetic reason.
What are Dental implants?
In basic terms dental implants are a man made and manufactured alternative to the natural root of your tooth. Generally speaking implants are made from high specification dental and medical grade titanium. The amazing thing is that the human body does not recognize titanium as a foreign object, this means the dental implant will totally integrate with the natural surroundings of your jaw.
The dental implant is placed into the jaw where your natural root used to be, on top of this we create a natural looking replacement for the tooth. The overall result is that no one would know you have ever had a tooth missing.
How implants are used, what is the procedure?
The procedure for placing the dental implant is a minor surgical one which most patients have under a local anesthetic. However if you are especially nervous of the dentist then we can provide oral sedation to help you relax during the entire procedure. If you have a single tooth missing then we will only use a single dental implant. If you have two teeth missing then two dental implants will probably be used. However, if you have three, four or even five teeth missing then the chances are we will still only use two dental implants, and suspend the remaining teeth between these dental implants.
This keeps the cost of dental implants lower and means the whole process is slightly simpler. Implants are an ideal solution for replacing Missing Teeth, Bridges or Dentures and are the next best thing to natural teeth. The tooth would be fixed to your jawbone allowing us to build a permanently secure and natural looking tooth.
Dental Implant Problems
Dental implants have a very high success rate and typically last many years. One of the problems with replacing teeth with a dental bridge, for example, is that the natural teeth underneath the bridge could possibly require further treatment at a later stage. With dental implants, because we don’t have to involve the adjacent teeth, this keeps them healthy and so the dental implant stands a higher chance of surviving for longer period of time. Overall this means that the problems with dental implants are very few and far between. One of the biggest causes of problems with dental implants is if the patient smokes, this is a particular contraindication to having implants as it impedes the ability for your gum to heal in the event of any problem.
- Replacment of missing teeth on screw surgically placed in jaw bones