Implants

About Dental Implants

Teeth can be lost for many reasons, and this can have a detrimental impact on your everyday living.

Teeth are primarily lost due to dental disease or dental trauma in both children and adults.

Missing teeth can have an impact on the overall quality of someone’s life. This includes:

• Difficulty with speech
• Aesthetics: the appearance of an individual, contributing to low self-esteem and confidence.
• Difficulty chewing certain foods, leading to possible malnutrition
• The surrounding teeth will start to drift and collapse into the missing tooth space, creating further issues.
• Overall negative impact on the quality of life

Dental implants are one of the many ways to replace missing teeth. Dental implants are made of titanium, a strong, durable, lightweight metal that is biocompatible with the human body.
 

Advantages of choosing dental implants

There are many advantages to choosing dental implants as the ideal replacement option compared to other options.
These include:

• Dental implants do not rely on the surrounding teeth for support. This way, there is less damage to the surrounding teeth and less chance of further future tooth/teeth loss.
• Dental implants feel like your own natural teeth, and you can function with implants as you do with your own natural teeth. They do not need to be removed during the night time.
• Dental implants are the only replacement option that helps keep the jaw bone from shrinkage.
• Dental implants can last a lifetime with excellent oral hygiene and routine dental check-up and cleans.

Who is a Good Candidate for Dental Implants?

If you are relatively healthy and your jaw bone can support an implant, you may be an ideal candidate. The health of the person is far more important than your age, and therefore a consultation with your dentist is of paramount importance to ensure you are eligible.

Some patients suffer from chronic medical conditions, which can slow down the healing rate after surgery. Dental implants may not be ideal if you are not medically fit as the implant may fail. Tobacco also predisposing dental implants to a higher failure rate and a shorter lifespan.
 

What is Involved in the Placement of a Dental Implant?

Dental implant placement occurs over a few appointments.

The placement involves 3 basics steps:

1. Placement of the Implant, the titanium screw in the jaw bone.
2. Healing process to allow the bone to grow around the implant to hold it in place.
3. Placement of the Prosthesis, which is the crown part of the teeth/tooth.

Placement options
There are multiple ways of implementing dental implants for patients. They do not just replace single missing teeth. You can also have any of the following options with the aid of dental implants to replace multiple missing teeth:

• Implant-supported bridge
• Implant-supported denture

For more information, book with one of our friendly dentists for a free consultation to discuss your future prospects with dental implants.