Dental Implants

What Dental Implants Can Do for You

Have you ever noticed people whom you have known to have missing teeth but now can smile as if nothing is missing at all? How about of people who used to wear dentures but now it looks like every tooth is part of the mouth naturally? Welcome to the world of dental implants. No more embarrassing moments like dentures falling off. Employment is a lot easier when your teeth look complete. If you had the face for being a model but the only drawback is your unsightly set of teeth, now you have hope.

It’s an Old Trick that Works

Dental implants have been done even 4000 years ago when the ancient Chinese used bamboo, shaped as the tooth, and tapped into the bone to replace the lost tooth. Two thousand years ago, the Egyptians have used the same process, only using precious metals and sometimes, ivory. It was in 1931, however, when a Mayan woman replaced her 3 missing incisors on lower mandible with pieces of shell that were shaped like the lost teeth. What is amazing, though, is that two of the 3 implants had bone growth around while the 3rd had calculus formation which is an indication that the shell implants were both functional and aesthetic.

Improved Technology

Today, it has been concluded that titanium and some ceramic are used to be able to avoid the hassles of foreign body reactions. The fusing with bone is called osseo-integration. This is important because it lessens the complication rate to make it more natural for the patient. However, it is also equally important that long term success depends also on the healthy bone and gingiva. If not, pre-prosthetic procedures are done to recreate what is ideal to make implants feasible.

The Mini Implants

Each tooth can be implanted, if you have several to consider. The implants goes first, then an abutment is screwed, then the crown. However, if you have all teeth removed, you can instead have a denture that is implants supported (mini implants) to minimize the number of implants in your bone. This way, the denture can still be removed by finger pressure. The abutment is shaped like a small connector in the underside of the prosthesis.

When to Schedule Procedure

The timing for implants can be done right after the extraction of the tooth/teeth, two weeks to 3 months after, or 3 months or more after. Many choose to do the immediate placement to take advantage of the shortened treating time since the hole is already existing.

What You Should Do

If you are considering a dental implants, check with dentist in Philippines if your dental status can give you a high success rate. If you are a heavy smoker, have diabetes, or your dental hygiene is poor, you have a high risk for long term failure. Before subjecting into the procedure, make sure that you understand what you will be going through. After the procedure, maintenance is similar to what should be done with regular teeth. Not everyone flosses but use a Teflon instrument to get plaque out and floss regularly. Any disorder from a regular tooth can also happen to the implants, even discoloration. That is also why it looks real.

When You Don’t Act Quickly(Permanent Teeth Extraction)

Bone loss will occur on the part where there is no tooth/teeth. Dentures and dental bridges cannot stop it from happening because those procedure are not permanent treatment. Face will sunk or teeth will move to where there is no teeth. Mini Implants is not recommendable as alternative to dental implants, as this mini implants is not placed deeply as the dental implants. This resulted to failure, that is why it is not recommended to patients but there are some who wants it to cut the expense.