Dental implants are a permanent and appealing solution to replace missing or extracted teeth. They are better than other alternatives like bridges because no additional teeth need to be altered to place the new tooth.
People often refer to a dental implant as a replacement tooth, but it is actually a metal post or appliance that replaces the patient’s tooth root or roots. Once the artificial root or roots are in, replacement teeth are put in place and thus anchored firmly to the bone by the implant. The patient’s new teeth look, feel and work just like natural teeth. There are several types of dental implants suited to various dental conditions.
Most Dental Implants are made of titanium, an inert metal which has been proven to be effective at fusing with living bone, a process known as “Osseo integration”.
Dental Implants are recommended for:
- The patient who has loose dentures or cannot function comfortably with conventional dentures.
- The patient who has lost teeth and wants to avoid removable partial dentures.
- The patient who has a missing tooth but doesn’t want to damage his or her adjacent healthy teeth.
- The person who wants to have the dental solution that is the closest to what Mother Nature created.
Bottom line is, because of recent advances in implant technology, more and more people with missing or non-restorable teeth are implant candidates. The only way to know for certain is to be evaluated. Typically, if a patient is healthy enough to undergo fixed bridgework procedures or routine extractions, he or she can also undergo dental implant procedures.
