Dental Implants

Some tooth replacement options would be dental implants which take the place of the root of the tooth in the bone. From that prosthesis, a prosthetic can be built on top of it whether it's a single tooth crown, whether it's a denture, whether it's something. . .a removable denture. So they are the support or the basis for any of the dentistry that we can build to replace missing teeth. The process involved in placing an implant would be typical local dental anesthetic. If the patient has dental anxieties, there are sedation methods available for that. But as far as the procedure, we are just making an osteotomy in the bone, and turning the implant in, and then letting things heal. Most of the time it's not any more invasive or uncomfortable than having a tooth taken out. Any dentist can place dental implants. Some choose to, and some choose not to. Most specialties will place. . .or do the surgery to place implants and most general dentists will restore them. There are some general dentists, our office is one of those places where we not only restore implants but we also place them. A good candidate for a dental implant would be anyone that has missing teeth or missing tooth, trouble using dentures as they are and need something to stabilize them. The length of the procedure for a dental implant is the surgery at placement. Typically the implant needs to integrate or the bone grows onto the implant. That process takes anywhere from four to six months and then the prosthesis is placed on top of the implant. There are some instances where an implant can be placed in the prosthetic or the restorative procedure can be done at the same time. The recovery after the dental implant placement surgery is pretty straightforward. Most people are not. . .recovery doesn't take any longer than it would if a tooth were extracted. So it might be a day or a day or so. You know, the benefits our patients have from the dental implants are they've got something that's fixed in their mouth that acts and functions like a natural tooth. Some of the feedback that we've gotten from patients that have had their teeth restored with dental implants are just the enjoyment of being able to treat it like a natural tooth and not feel like they've got a foreign object in their mouth.