Many people with missing teeth put off tooth replacement. Some think it doesn’t matter as long as their missing tooth is in the back. Others think all tooth replacement options look and feel fake, and still more people think that replacing missing teeth is a painful process. Dental implants have changed the way patients and dentists think of tooth replacement. By replacing the entire tooth, root and crown, dental implant supported restorations offer natural looking, feeling, and functioning replacement teeth in just five easy steps.
1 – Consultation
Before we begin any treatment, we need to ensure this service will meet your unique set of dentistry needs. During a tooth replacement consultation, we’ll examine your smile as well as oral and overall health. As long as a physician would deem you healthy enough for moderately invasive procedures, you have adequate soft tissue and jawbone density, and you don’t have any other oral health issues that need to be addressed, we can usually provide implant supported tooth replacement. In addition to health considerations, you’ll also need to invest time and money into completing this treatment successfully. We’ll walk you through all of these important factors and make plans for your ongoing dental implant treatment.
2 – Preparation
If we do determine that you have diminished jawbone density or gum tissue volume or that there are other oral health issues we need to address, we’ll do this before beginning the dental implant process. You may need one or more preparatory appointments in order for a dental team to:
- Place soft tissue or bone grafts
- Extract damaged teeth
- Treat oral health issues like gum disease
3 – Surgical Implant Placement
The surgical placement of the implant post is really very simple. We make a small incision in the gum line. Then, the implant post is inserted into the jawbone. Once in place, a protective cap is attached to the implant post to allow the gum tissue to heal and retain the right shape to accommodate the replacement tooth or teeth.
4 – Osseointegration (Implant Fuses with Jawbone)
After the implant post is placed, patients will need to wait three to six months on average for the osseointegration process to be completed. This is the technical term used to describe the fusion of the implant post to surrounding, supportive dental structures, mimicking the function of tooth roots.
5 – Restoration
Once the implant post fuses with the jawbone, you’ll return to our office where we’ll use an abutment piece to attach one or more replacement teeth to dental implant posts. This versatile tooth replacement option can be used to restore any number of missing teeth from a single tooth to a full arch.
Meet the Hill Avenue Dental Team
The Hill Avenue Dental team is passionate about making dentistry services available for all patients. We know that one of the most important tasks we have as dental care providers is to help our patients understand and feel comfortable with all their treatment solutions. If you’d like to find out more about dental implants or any of your tooth replacement options, contact our Superior dentistry team today.