IMPLANTOLOGY

What is a dental implant?

A dental implant is a metal rod of titanium or titanium coated with a biocompatible material, which has the ability to bind naturally to your existing bone and whose appearance is reminiscent of a screw.

The implants are placed in your jaw, and after a few months of healing - usually 2 to 4 - they can replace the roots of your natural teeth and support a single tooth, partial denture or complete denture. Dental implants integrate with the jawbone and mimic the action of the tooth's roots, so they fill the role of natural teeth. In addition to ensuring perfect stability in a fixed or removable prosthesis, the implant stimulates new bone cells which then cease to atrophy. The jaw can maintain its volume and integrity. The musculature and articulation found in a permanent dental environment promotes a return to the balance of muscle and joint function.

The success of dental implants began in the 1960s with the discovery of the fundamental concept of osseointegration of titanium by a Swedish researcher, Dr. Per-Ingvar Branemark. The first modern implant was placed in those years, so successfully, that the recipient is still using them today.

Unlike dentures and bridges, implants hold up well and can last a lifetime.

Why Choose Implants?

An implant is a solution for life. If you are missing one or more teeth, you understand the inconvenience this can cause. Dental implants have enabled many people to rediscover the pleasure of tasting food, smiling, talking, playing sports and sleeping without worrying about their prostheses. With the perfect stability of the prostheses, which release the oral mucosa, you can rediscover the taste of food along and return to a normal healthy life.

By slowing down the process of collapse of bone structure and facial muscle, dental implants can improve the aesthetics of those who suffer the consequences of their maxillary atrophy. In short, an implant helps preserve and often restore facial appearance and functionality.

The Trouble With Bridges and Dentures

Conventional dentures rest on the gums and can cause permanent natural bone loss. The jaws are absorbed and thus gradually subside. This bone loss can cause an imbalance which causes abnormal tension and loosening of the muscles of the face and neck. This explains the gradual onset of facial and neck pain.

That's why toothless people seem to age faster than others. Their lips and chin sink in and the nose becomes more pronounced because of the lack of muscle required to maintain the delicate balance of facial morphology. Partial dentures can also cause damage, the same phenomenon of bone loss occurs, receding from the area surrounding the missing tooth. The movement of the prosthesis during mastication eventually affects the adjacent teeth and can, over time, cause loss.

Conventional dentistry provides replacements for missing teeth using bridges, removable partial dentures, or full dentures. However, each of these treatment options can cause a new set of potential problems.

Bridges usually involve filing down adjacent, healthy teeth to provide a stable foundation for supporting the replacement teeth. These ground-down teeth often fail over time, resulting in additional dental problems and costs down the road.

Partial and full dentures are often uncomfortable and can be very unstable, resulting in difficulty with speech and with eating. These unnatural appliances often slip or move, and sometimes even fall out. The result is lack of confidence, and the need to avoid many activities and social situations. One patient put it this way "With my dentures, if I didn't have to smile, eat or talk, I was just fine." And none of these traditional solutions address the problem of bone loss.

The Benefits of Implants

• Dental Implants can be used to replace a single tooth, a few teeth, or all the teeth on one or both arches of your mouth.
• Implants are fixed in place and do not move. Therefore, there is no slipping or clicking as with dentures.
• Implant-supported teeth are the closest thing possible to natural teeth. They look, feel and function just like your natural teeth.
• Dental implants allow you to eat all the foods you like, just as with natural teeth.
• Dental implants have proven to be reliable, with a 95% or higher success rate. The success of dental implants is supported by decades of clinical experience and hundreds of thousands of satisfied patients
• Dental implants and your new teeth can be placed without impacting other healthy teeth. This is not true with traditional bridges, which require filing down of healthy adjacent teeth to support the bridge. These filed down teeth often fail within just a few years, requiring more and expensive dental work.
• Unlike bridges or dentures, dental implants are placed into and fuse with the bone in your jaws. This not only provides stability, but also prevents bone loss and atrophy that normally result from missing teeth.
• Dental implants provide a long-term solution to your dental problems, often lasting a lifetime. Traditional bridges usually must be replaced, often within ten years and dentures each five years.
• With dental implants, you avoid the pain and embarrassment of dentures. There is no fear of slipping or falling out, no need to avoid activities, no need to restrict what or how you eat, no wire in your mouth, no plastic on the roof of your mouth. In general, people with dental implants say they just live better than they did when they had dentures.

Implants address the problem of bone loss

Natural teeth preserve the jawbone. When a tooth is lost, the bone around the missing tooth begins to resorb and atrophy. Over time, this can result in the loss of other teeth, and the overall deterioration of your dental health.

When many or all your teeth are missing, the jawbone can experience significant atrophy, resulting in a facial features that look "sunken". People with dentures often look older and less attractive because of this bone loss. Conventional bridges and dentures do not address the problem of loss of bone in the area where teeth are missing, worse, activate destruction of the bone.

Dental implants avoid the bone loss problems caused by bridges and partial dentures. Because dental implants are anchored into the jawbone and do not rely on surrounding teeth, they perform naturally and promote a healthy bone. When a missing tooth is replaced by a dental implant, the fusion (or osseointegration) of the implant and bone provides stability, just as the natural tooth did.

When missing all of your teeth, dental implants stimulate the bone, protect against atrophy, and help preserve your natural facial features.