Dental implants are essentially replacement teeth that take the place of missing teeth. Implants are made of titanium, a metal that is very commonly used in medical and dental procedures due to its compatibility with the human body and ability to integrate with human bones during the healing process. Though the technology to produce them has been in use since the mid-1960s, they have recently grown in both popularity and availability because they provide a simple, safe solution to give patients who are missing teeth a natural-looking smile.
Dental implants are used for the following reasons:
There are several unique advantages that dental implants have over traditional crowns, bridges, and dentures. At Empress Walk Dental, we recommend dental implants for the following reasons:
Dental implants are created from titanium and are typically in the shape of either a screw or a tube. They measure between 8-16 mm long depending upon the needs of the patient. When your Empress Walk Dental dentist installs your dental implant, the implant will be placed into a special space within the jawbone so that it can serve as a stand-in root for the absent tooth. From there, your dentist will connect the dental implant with the crown, bridge, and/or denture that it is supporting by means of an attachment called an abutment. Throughout the healing process, the jawbone will slowly incorporate the implant’s titanium exterior into the rest of the bone. This phenomenon, which is sometimes known by its more technical name of osseointegration, occurs over the course of 3-6 months. Once the osseointegration process is complete, the implant will be ready to take on the weight of one or more false teeth.
Empress Walk Dental dentists recommend dental implants for patients who:
Once you have received your dental implants from Empress Walk Dental, we will schedule a series of regular follow-up visits so that your dentist can monitor the healing process and make sure that you do not experience any preventable complications.
At Empress Walk Dental, we have put a lot of time and effort into learning everything we can about how to help our patients. Sometimes, this means we have to deliver the news to a patient that the treatment they want is not recommended for their particular situation. Some situations where we strongly recommend against dental implants are: