If you hate getting your teeth ground to replace missing teeth? Implants are the perfect solution to this problem. Dental Implants have many advantages over dentures or a Bridge.
- Aesthetic: Dental implants look and feel like one's your own teeth! Since dental implants integrate into the structure of your bone, they prevent bone loss and gum recession that often accompany bridgework and dentures. No one will ever know that you have a replacement tooth.
- Tooth-saving: Dental implants don't sacrifice the quality of your adjacent teeth like a bridge does because neighbouring teeth are not altered to support the implant. More of your own teeth are left untouched, a significant long-term benefit to your oral health!
- Confidence: Dental implants will allow you to once again speak and eat with comfort and confidence! They are secure and offer freedom from the irksome clicks and wobbles of dentures. They allow you to say goodbye to worries about misplaced dentures and messy pastes and glues.
- Reliable: The success rate of dental implants is highly predictable. They are considered an excellent option for tooth replacement.
What is a dental implant?
A dental implant is nothing more than a titanium screw that is placed into the jaw bone. It acts as an anchor for a false tooth or a set of false teeth. When a dental implant restoration is perfectly constructed, neither the patient nor anyone else should have any hint that an implant is there. All people should see is the 'tooth'.
Who is a candidate for dental implants?
Anyone in reasonable health who wants to replace missing teeth. You must have enough bone in the area of the missing teeth to provide for anchorage of implants. Generally implants are used to replace small bridges, removable partial dentures and even missing single teeth. If a patient does not have enough bone to support a dental implant, bone grafts can be placed.
How long after a dental implant is placed can it be used to anchor my new teeth?
The protocol that was originally developed clearly states that we must wait three months in the lower jaw and six months in the upper jaw before we can begin to construct the new dental prosthesis that will be supported by implants. In recent years, however, there has been a movement within the profession to sort of speed up this process. Today we believe that it is possible in selected patients to accelerate healing time. However, the general protocol that we favour is three months in the lower jaw and four months in the upper jaw.
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