Dental implants
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008Last month I had a pleasure to treat several patients, who needed implants. It takes a while to have an implant placed, and the most time goes towards planning and preparation. First: not everybody knows what a dental implant is. It is a small body of titanium, resembling a root of a tooth, which needs to be placed in the bone, like a dental root. For the best prognosis it is left alone for 3-6 month in order to heal in properly, and then a crown or a connector to denture can be placed to either replace the missing tooth or keep this “loose” denture from falling out. Also an X-ray or a CAT-scan needs to be done before, to find out if there is enough bone to place the implant in to. The advantages of an implant are numerous: it replaces the missing, broken or the otherwise not savable tooth to the best ability we have right now. We do not have to cut adjacent teeth, and the adjacent teeth do not have to carry the load of the missing tooth, so each tooth keeps on working for itself.
Also once a tooth is pulled, a process starts, where the surrounding bone gets resorbed and this process never stops. An implant is right now the only way to prevent this from happening. This way you do not lose your jaw bone, your face features do not change and your teeth do not shift.
For the denture wearers (and even though there are less of them now than 20 or more years ago), it can mean the difference between continuing to suffer from pain or having finally being able to bite in to a steak or an apple.
I work with several specialists in order to achieve the best possible outcome for my patients. Depending on the situation at hand, I place the implants myself, or refer to a surgeon. I use only those dental labs that have been licensed by dental implant companies and also have been around for a long time and have experience,e.g: www.renzoswissquality.com or www.davincilab.com.
There are limitations when we can and can not place an implant (auto immune disease, diabetes, gum disease and others). There are also different types of implants on the market that are designed for different situations.
You are welcome to call and come in for a consultation