Procedures
Cosmetic dental surgery can not only improve your smile but can also boost your self-confidence. The highly experienced, board-certified doctors and friendly staff provide a full range of general dentistry, cosmetic dentistry and restorative dentistry services including the following:
Dental Implants
Why Dental Implants?
Dental implants provide many benefits to you. The most dramatic is for the patient with a loose denture, especially the lower. If you have one, you know exactly what I mean. Do you avoid social situations that involve food? Do you go to the wedding but skip the reception because you cannot chew what you want to? Are you limited to certain items on the restaurant menu because of your teeth?
Implants stabilize the teeth so that they do not move during chewing, speaking, or singing. Your biting force with a denture is less than a quarter of what it is with teeth present! You can bite down as hard as you want on an implant supported tooth or teeth and feel no discomfort whatever.
The most common way to stabilize a lower denture is to place a number of implants in the lower front jaw. This is the area that is the safest to place an implant, as the bone there is dense and strong, and there are no major nerves in the area. The gold colored parts in the photograph are Locator™ abutments screwed onto the dental implants, which are securely locked into the bone. You feel no discomfort whatsoever when these are pressed on or tapped, so they are a very secure base for the denture. The denture has easily replaceable nylon snaps that hold the denture down, so no coming loose when you chew or talk!
A similar approach can be done on the upper jaw as well.
Implants
Inside of Denture
Another use for dental implants is to hold a removable partial in place. Research has shown that hooking a partial to a tooth is very damaging to the tooth. That tooth has to carry its own load as well as hold onto a partial replacing several teeth. No wonder those teeth often get loose, sore, or break off at the gumline. For the past several years we have been placing dental implants to act as the anchor for a partial. An attachment such as shown in this photo, can hold the partial securely in place with no pressure on your teeth. The gold colored pieces (abutments) screw into the dental implant, and the partial snaps onto the abutments. There is a nylon snap that acts as the retention, and it is easily changed when it wears over a few years. Maintenance is super easy! And no unsightly metal wires on the partial!. These look much better, last longer, and are more comfortable than traditional partials.
Removable Partial
Removable Partial
One major, yet often overlooked advantage of dental implants is the preservation of your jawbone. After any tooth is removed, the bone holding that tooth in place starts to melt away. Bone is like a muscle--you use it or lose it. The bone needs stimulation in a certain way to stay there. For example, astronauts who spend a long time in weightlessness have much weaker bones when they return to Earth, as the bone as well as the muscles atrophy from disuse, or lack of stimulation. The good news is that dental implants stimulate the bone in much the same way as a tooth, preventing the loss of bone.
People are living longer than ever before-it is not uncommon for people to live active lives well into their 80's and 90's! Unfortunately, they can sometimes outlive their jawbone-so that the bone is so atrophied that they cannot wear any kind of denture. If you wait until then, it is unlikely that you would be healthy enough to undergo implant placement, so it is often too late! That is why placing implants while you are relatively young and healthy is good insurance. How many of you have heard the phrase, "If I knew I'd live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself!"
This illustrates the amount of bone that can be lost over a lifetime without teeth or implants to stimulate the bone. You can imagine how uncomfortable a denture would be sitting on this severely resorbed jawbone.
Cosmetic consequences of tooth loss
As bone is lost, your face changes shape. Wrinkles deepen as you lose the bony support for the muscles. Your chin gets closer to your nose, as most lower dentures are made much shorter than your natural teeth were. The lower jaw appears forward (Dick Tracy look) because the jaw is over closed. The lips appear thinner because of lack of support. A "witch's chin" can appear because of migration of the muscle attachments.
Implants allow the teeth to be placed closer to where they were originally, restoring much of the facial shape. Lower dentures are usually made much shorter than your original teeth were, to make them more stable. This results in a short lower face, where your chin is too close to your nose.
What if I am missing only one or a few teeth?
In many instances, implants can support fixed teeth that you do not remove. Placement of the implant can stop the bone loss in even a single tooth site. If the tooth has been extracted for years and the bone has melted away, many times a bone grafting procedure can build up the bone sufficient to place an implant, restoring the area as closely as modern science can to having your tooth back.
Before
After
This man shattered his front tooth in an accident-a dental implant replaced the tooth, as well as a porcelain veneer to improve the appearance of his other central incisor.
If you feel you can benefit from dental implants, contact us for a complimentary consultation. This offer is for existing patients as well as new ones!
Dental Library: Dental Implants
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Dental Implants - Your Third Set of Teeth |
