Dental Implants

A dental implant is custom made to look, feel, and function like your natural teeth. Implants can replace a single tooth, multiple teeth, or even a full denture.

Implants have three parts: the screw, the abutment, and the crown. Together, these give you a secure, natural-looking tooth replacement. The screw replaces your tooth’s root at it joins the bone beneath your gums. The screw supports your newly designed crown and the two are joined using an abutment or small post. Once installed, implants are permanent so that your teeth won’t slip or fall out.

The Benefits of Dental Implants

Dental implants have important benefits over tooth replacement options that rest above the gums. Dental implants:

• Give you freedom to eat as you wish. The secure hold between the titanium implant and your jaw bone functions like your natural tooth root.
• Look beautiful. You will be able to smile with confidence knowing that your custom-made teeth will look natural for years to come.
• Give you options. Regardless if you replace one or many teeth, dental implants can support a variety of different prosthetic attachments and can also be used to anchor dentures.
• Preserve the health and appearance of your mouth. Missing teeth allow the bone under your gums to diminish and this can, over time, reshape your mouth and lips into a more “collapsed” appearance. The more bone you lose, the higher your risk for oral health complications. Dental implants naturally stimulate bone retention much like your natural teeth do, preserving the structure of your oral and facial bones. Additionally, dental shifting and other problems associated with missing teeth are curbed by implants.

The Dental Implant Process

Dental implants are a joint process between you, your oral surgeon, dentist, and the dental laboratory. For the majority of patients, the process looks like this:

1. After an oral examination with our dentist, we will review your potential treatment plan and get verification from a board-certified oral surgeon that you are a candidate for a dental implant.
2. We will coordinate a consultation with your oral surgeon. Your surgeon will take any remaining scans to finalize your treatment plan.
3. It’s time for your procedure. Using advanced, custom-made surgical guides, the surgeon will place the screw into the missing tooth site. After placement, your implant site must heal so that bone to implant integration can happen.
4. Once healing is complete, your oral surgeon will attach the healing abutments to your implant.
5. The final step is to restore your implant(s), the process by which your dentist takes impressions, performs intraoral scans, and fabricates the final component, usually a crown or bridge.