Virginia Implant Dental Insurance - In Your Local Area

Dental Implants - Common Questions Answered By Implant Dentist

If you have lost a tooth, it is likely that one of your options is to replace it with a dental implant. Before you decide a course of action, you should consider asking your implant dentist some simple questions:

What is a dental implant?

A dental implant is a titanium metal replacement for a root of a tooth that is surgically implanted in the jawbone by a specially trained implant dentist or oral surgeon. As the body heals for approximately two to six months after the surgery, the bone around the implant fuses to the implant through a process called osseointegration. After the healing phase is complete, the implants are used to anchor crowns, bridges, or dentures. Dental implants are the most natural replacement for a missing tooth.

What does the implant dentist do?

The process should begin with a thorough evaluation of the patient's medical and dental history, and a full clinical examination of the entire mouth and missing tooth area by your dentist. The clinical exam should also include specific X-rays. After assessing the patient, a comprehensive treatment plan can be devised. From that point, implants are surgically placed in the jawbone under local anesthesia. The length of the healing time is based on the quality and quantity of bone, as well as the type of implant placed. After adequate healing is allowed to occur, the implant can be used to support a crown, bridge, or denture.

What happens if the dental implant fails to fuse to the jawbone?

If an implant fails to bond to bone, another implant can immediately be put in its place, usually of a slightly larger diameter. In situations where another implant cannot be immediately placed, the area is allowed to heal for a few months and then another one can be put in the same place.

How many implants should be placed?

This is a question that should be determined during the treatment plan. A good rule-of-thumb is to place one implant for each tooth replaced. Other decisive factors for the number of dental implants needed for success is the quality and quantity of the patient's bone. Equally as important are the existing anatomy of the bone and the financial resources of the patient.

Placing enough implants to restore teeth is vitally important to the long-term success of the restoration. Simply stated, the most costly mistake is to have an implant fail because not enough implants are placed to support the teeth. If the number of implants is limited due to financial constraints of the patient, then the implant treatment should be avoided or the type of restoration must be altered.

When you are more knowledgeable about your implant treatment, you will be able to have more input to give your dentist and better your chances of a successful treatment outcome.

By Benjamin O. Watkins, III, DDS

Implant Dentistry Gives You Better Fitting Denture Implants

The art and science of implant dentistry has advanced rapidly during recent years and new techniques and materials have greatly improved our ability to replace missing tissues with functional and natural-looking artificial prostheses called dentures implants. However, it must be remembered from the outset that no prosthesis or artificial substitute will ever function as well as the original living tissues. Research has shown that the chewing efficiency of experienced denture patients is, at best, less than 20% as efficient as the average chewing efficiency of patients with natural teeth.

Why Is the Lower Complete Denture So Hard to Wear?

Both upper and lower dentures are retained in the mouth by an intimately close fit of the plastic denture base to the gums. The intimately close fit is achieved by a combination of muscle control and suction. Mastering the function of the lower denture is more difficult than learning to use an upper complete denture. By comparison, the lower denture has less stable tissue with which to rest on than the upper denture. The lower denture stays in place largely due to the ability of the denture wearer to control their tongue well enough to hold the denture down while they speak and chew. Therefore, lack of tongue coordination in a lower complete denture wearer can severely affect the patient's ability to wear a lower complete denture.

Bone Loss and Complete Dentures

For various reasons, teeth have to be removed. After tooth removal, the residual bone that is used to support the teeth will then shrink away quite rapidly over the first year because the body knows that the residual bone is no longer needed. The greatest amount of shrinkage occurs during the first year after tooth removal. Research has shown that wearing dentures will accelerate jawbone shrinkage. As the shrinkage of the jawbone support progresses over time, new dentures will need to be fabricated in approximately six to ten years. Because each denture wearer is unique, sometimes the internal surface of the denture needs to be readapted to the gum tissues. This procedure is called a reline.

Lower Complete Dentures and Denture Implants

Some patients are never able to adapt to functioning day-to-day with their complete dentures. Many of these patients do not have adequate bone to stabilize a lower denture. Others never develop enough muscle coordination to learn to chew with their dentures. For many years, dentistry had nothing more to offer patients other than a denture adhesive. Today, such problems can often be managed through the use of implant dentistry. Even with as few as two dental implants, the retention and stability of a lower denture can be greatly increased with denture implants. In fact, the chewing efficiency can also be greatly increased. Some patients have estimated that they regained up to 70% of their original chewing capacity. Overall, patients feel more confident when they are in public because they no longer fear that their dentures will slip or cause them embarrassment with denture implants.

By Benjamin O. Watkins, III, DDS

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