For many years, dentures have been the standard replacement to missing or failing teeth. However, dentistry is constantly evolving and we’re finding new innovations to help patients achieve the best overall oral health possible. Dental implants are just one way that technology is helping patients like you return to optimal oral health. Overall, dental implants are a better, more permanent tooth replacement option compared to dentures, yielding much better results. Read on to learn how dental implants can help you get your smile back.
What are Dental Implants?
Dental implants are small titanium “root-form” screws, which are placed in your jawbone by a periodontist or an oral surgeon to replace missing or failing teeth. After healing, your general dentist or prosthodontist will restore your implants and place crowns on top.
Dental implants provide a permanent solid foundation to support a natural-looking and natural-feeling crown or bridge. Additionally, they can be used to add dramatically greater retention, stability and support compared to removable partial dentures or complete dentures.
Dental Implants Are the Best Way to Restore Teeth
By consensus of the most respected dental organizations in the world today, dental implants are considered to be the most ideal and most predictable way to replace teeth.
This is because:
- Dental implant restorations are most like natural teeth in feel, look and function. Since the implants are surgically placed in your jawbone, they bond with the bone and act like real teeth.
- Dental implants are successful well over 90% of the time in the long-term. Retrospective studies, which now cover many decades and tens of thousands of implant patients, back this impressive predictability.
- Dental implants preserve the jawbone and prevent bone from resorbing (disappearing) over time. Dental implant therapy is the only tooth replacement strategy that accomplishes this.Dental implant therapy always spares the neighboring teeth, unlike conventional tooth-borne bridge therapy. A dental bridge unfortunately involves substantially cutting down of adjacent teeth to provide support for the bridge. This impact on the adjacent teeth always enhances the risk for possible future root canal treatment and/or recurrent tooth decay
- Dental implants are expected to last a lifetime. Dental implant therapy may require a greater initial investment of time and finances. However, patients with implants find that the long-term investment is far less costly, much more natural feeling, and looking and considerably more predictable than any other dental treatment used to replace missing teeth.
Dental implants often can be placed at the same time that a hopeless tooth is removed (due to fracture, decay or loss of bone support from gum disease). At other times, implant therapy may require staged-treatment, or at least two procedures, to get the best results.
At Dental Associates, we have dentists and specialists to support the entire scope of implant placement, which means we can complete the entire dental implants process from start to finish all in the same clinic in most cases. Talk to a Dental Associates dentist to learn how dental implants can be the right choice for you to restore your teeth.
Illustrations courtesy of BioHorizons
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