Dental Implants Options For A Healthy Smile

Dental implants materials and technology have evolved over the last few decades. They have become the ideal replacement for a lost tooth or teeth. The long-term dental implants success rate is over 98%. Dental implants have now become a mainstream dental care service.

Dental Implants Options

Dental implants treatment is highly personalized. Treatment will depend on where and how many teeth are missing and the available quantity and quality of bone. Below are examples of where dental implants can replace lost teeth: 

• Loss Of A Single Tooth. Before dental implants, this meant restoring your smile with a removable appliance (called a "flipper") or removing natural tooth structure from surrounding teeth to create a fixed dental bridge. The flipper is uncomfortable to wear and typically affects speech. The dental bridge compromises the support teeth. Removal of natural tooth structure along with the added stress can compromise their long-term health. A single tooth dental implant can last a lifetime with esthetics and function just like a natural tooth. 
• Loss Of Multiple Teeth. With multiple teeth missing, dental implants can create a stable dental bridge. The dental implant-supported bridge will provide stability as well as esthetics. 
• Replacing All Teeth. The only way to restore function in the past was to fabricate a removable denture. With dental implants, dentists can restore an entire smile. This will enhance appearance and function over traditional dentures. The all on 4 dental implants procedure has been the answer for many smiles

Supplemental Procedures To Dental Implants Procedure

For some patients, additional dental treatment is needed to prepare your smile for dental implants. These supplemental procedures can include: 

• Sinus Lift. When you have a large sinus area, there will be a lack of bone to anchor the dental implants. Sinus lifts are necessary to elevate the sinus membrane and thicken the bone of the upper jaw with a bone graft. This grafting procedure helps give a dental implant enough bone depth to place it properly in the area you need it. Dental implants require a good quantity of bone and a good, dense quality of bone to succeed. The upper jaw is known to have a poorer amount and quality bone structure than the lower jaw. Sinus augmentation can fix these issues by elevating the sinus floor and placing bone grafts in the area. 
• Bone Grafting. Dentists can add bone quantity when the bone is not 100% adequate for implant placement. A dental bone graft is the placement of bone or synthetic bone in the jaw to build it up. This added bone quantity gives an excellent platform for dental implants. Dental bone grafts have been shown to improve dental implants' appearance and long-term success. 

Can Dental Implants Fail?

It is rare for the failure of dental implants to occur. When it does fail, the dental implant must be removed—then re-evaluated as to why the failure occurred and see if a new dental implant can be placed. 

Some of the common dental implants problems include: 

• Failed Integration of Dental Implants occurs when the dental implant does not integrate with the surrounding bone. This integration to a dental implant is called osseointegration. To reduce this risk, your implant dentist will evaluate the quality and density of the bone before surgery. This evaluation will allow your dentist to only place dental implants in areas with a predictable success rate. If osseointegration does not take place, your dentist can remove the dental implants, and you can attempt surgery again following healing. 
• Dental Infection – This is the #1 complication of dental implant surgery. The surrounding bone and gum tissues can get infected during or after the surgical procedure. This dental infection can happen due to non-sterile technique, implant contamination, poor healing ability(diabetic, smoker, osteoporosis medications), or a pre-existing infection. The most likely time for an infection to develop would be during the surgical placement of the dental implant. Poor dental hygiene, excessive force placed on the implant, or excess dental cement can cause the supporting tissue to break down. Implant infection is a condition called peri-implantitis. Peri-implantitis is characterized by inflammation of the tissues surrounding the implant area. 
• Post-Surgical Bleeding – Following surgery, some bleeding is normal for about 1-2 days. Gentle pressure with a gauze pad over the surgery area for 20-30 minutes should usually stop the bleeding. Excessive bleeding is not normal. If this occurs, you should notify your dentist immediately. 
• Damage To Surrounding Tissues – Surgical errors affecting adjacent teeth, nerves, or sinus cavity are directly related to the experience and skill of the dentist. An experienced and skilled implant dentist can identify potential problems by examining x-rays, designing the proper surgical plan for the ideal angle and location, and successfully executing without complication. Even a highly skilled implant dentist can have dental implant complications. An experienced implant dentist can limit the complications and handle them properly. 
• Rejection is an infrequent complication for dental implants, but it has been noted in the research literature. Dental implants, for some patients, can sometimes be viewed as a foreign body. 
• Un Restorable Dental Implants – An implant that has successfully integrated with the bone, but the area or extreme placement angle make it unrestorable.

Conclusion

Dental implants have become the ideal solution to restore and enhance smiles worldwide. They come with some risks, but with proper treatment design from a well-qualified implant dentist, they can be a highly successful tooth replacement for a lifetime of smiles.