Most people have heard of dental implants. While many oral healthcare professionals might claim they can give you dental implants, few of them are as specialized as we are here at Novudentics. Let’s cover some more information about dental implants, and why they might be the right choice for you.
Why is it important to replace missing teeth?
Missing teeth could have esthetic, functional, and psychological implications for the patients. Each tooth provides support to adjacent teeth, providing arch integrity and supporting your occlusion. Losing a tooth could cause adjacent or opposing teeth to shift out of position.
Your natural teeth anchor within the underlying bone tissue, stimulating the bone when you chew. Losing one or more teeth means losing that stimulation as well as the occlusal awareness which is called proprioception. Your bone responds by slowly resorbing, weakening the support of the remaining teeth.
What are dental implants?
Dental implants permanently replace missing teeth. Individual dental implants replace one tooth, while multiple implants (four or more depending on the patient’s underlying bone, age, medical history, etc.) could be a viable option to replace the entire upper or lower missing teeth.
Implants consist of three main parts; the first part is a titanium post that replaces the root portion of the tooth and the second part is an artificial crown made by porcelain that replaces the visible portion of the tooth, which lies above the gum level. The third part is called abutment and connects the first two parts, providing stability for the final restoration.
All-on-4 and similar protocols use implants to secure an entire arch of artificial prosthesis. An alternative to traditional dental implant restorations, All-on-4 is a good option for people who lack sufficient bone tissue or prefer to avoid extra surgical procedures to regenerate the missing bone.
What are the steps involved in getting dental implants?
The team at Novudentics has extensive experience through postgraduate training in implant therapy and other prosthodontic treatments. The process begins with advanced digital imaging to evaluate the structure of your teeth and surrounding bone tissue. State-of-the-art dental software creates an individualized treatment plan designed just for you based on precision and respect of the oral anatomic features.
On the day of your procedure, local anesthesia ensures you remain comfortable as your dentist makes an incision in your gums to access the underlying bone. A small pilot hole guides the implant placement before your dentist carefully closes your gum tissue. The procedure is fast and seamless and involves minor postoperative discomfort.
A period of healing follows, allowing your bone tissue to fuse to the implanted post. This process, called osseointegration, makes dental implants a permanent foundation for the upcoming restoration.
After several weeks of healing, you return to the office to have your crown attached to the post, which completes the implant process. In case of multiple implants, the process is similar, with the difference that the restoration replaces more or all the teeth in the arch.
If you would like more information about dental implants, call Novudentics to schedule a visit or book an appointment online today.