Dental Implants

As teeth are lost, it becomes more difficult over time to eat and chew food. The jaw bone melts away with disuse. You may be surprised to learn that 29% of denture wearers eat only soft or mashed foods and 50% avoid many foods altogether. Implant-supported dentures keep the mouth in its optimal function so you will hopefully, never have to mash your food! If you are missing one tooth or all of your teeth, implant-supported dentures might be right for you.

Replacement of missing teeth is essential to maintaining the bone in the jaw. The longer a tooth is missing the more bone is lost in that site. Dental implants are man-made root replacements for natural teeth. They are then used as an anchor to secure the replacement tooth or teeth, allowing us to do so without harming the healthy natural teeth adjacent to the space.

Some patients may want to replace a lost rear molar with a dental implant in order to preserve as much chewing function as possible and to maintain the integrity of the jawbone in the area. Many of these patients will be good candidates for this treatment, but it’s important to be evaluated by a dentist trained in implants to determine the likelihood that you’ll be able to achieve your desired treatment outcomes with a dental implant.

The most important characteristic of a dental implant patient is the quality of bone at the implant site. Patients who have put off getting dental implants may find that they have too little bone at the site to support osseointegration, the process by which the bone forms a bond with the implant, leaving it a fixture in the mouth.

However, dental implants may still be used to replace a rear molar even after bone loss has occurred. The patient may be able to undergo a bone graft to provide supplemental bone in the area. A bone graft will extend the treatment timeline, but it can be valuable in helping some patients to reach their treatment goals.

If you want to avoid a bone graft prior to dental implant placement, it’s important that you begin planning for treatment as soon as possible after losing your molar or having it extracted before any significant bone loss occurs.

Patients may be tempted to delay treatment to replace a missing tooth, especially if that tooth was not in a highly visible area. However, postponing an intervention after tooth loss can result in a number of consequences.

Even a single missing tooth can compromise your smile’s appearance, create an opportunity for the other teeth to shift out of their proper positions and affect your ability to chew and speak properly.

Dental implants offer a more structurally complete tooth replacement than dental bridges and dentures implants, including both an artificial tooth “root” and a prosthetic crown.

They also prevent jawbone erosion, which is another factor that can motivate patients to move quickly to replace missing teeth. If you delay treatment outright or even choose an alternative that has no root-like structure, you may experience significant bone loss, especially if several years pass

Many patients worry that their quality of life will suffer following tooth loss, and rightfully so. If you receive an uncomfortable, ill-fitting appliance to replace your missing teeth, then you may not look and feel like your best self.

Therefore, it’s important to weigh a number of different factors when choosing a tooth replacement treatment. Your various options, including dental implants, conventional dentures or bridges, all have certain characteristics that can affect your comfort and the smile’s function.

Dental implants tend to give patients better quality of life in many ways. First of all, they look and feel like natural teeth. The materials used to create the prosthetic crowns, bridges or dentures implants are quite lifelike. Also, because the implants provide a physical link between the replacement teeth and the jaw, dental implants feel more like a patient’s biological teeth.