Dental Implants Specialist

What are dental implants?

Dental implants are replacement tooth roots made of titanium or another durable metal. A connector, known as an abutment, extends from each implant and attaches to a replacement tooth. Each replacement tooth is custom fabricated to match the color and appearance of your natural, permanent teeth. 

The team can use dental implants to replace one tooth or multiple teeth. In addition to improving your physical appearance, dental implants help prevent bone deterioration, gum disease, and other serious oral health problems. 

What are some benefits of dental implants?

Compared to traditional oral prosthetics, dental implants provide a number of benefits. Some of those advantages include: 

• Improved appearance
• Improved speech
• Improved comfort
• Easier eating
• Improved self-esteem
  
  

You don’t have to worry as much about your dental implants chipping, cracking, or breaking like you do with crowns or bridges. If you do damage an implant for one reason or another, the team specializes in dental implant restoration. 

Who is a good candidate for dental implants?

If you’re healthy enough to undergo a routine dental procedure like an extraction or a root canal, you’re probably a good candidate for treatment. However, it’s important you have enough healthy gum tissue and jawbone to hold the implant.

If you smoke cigarettes, have a history of gum disease, or have a chronic illness such as diabetes or high blood pressure, make sure to share this information with your provider. These conditions won’t necessarily disqualify you from treatment, but they may increase your risk of complications. 

Following an oral exam, review of your medical history, and discussion of your goals for treatment, the team can formulate a treatment plan that aligns with your individual needs. 

Does getting dental implants take more than one appointment?

The process for receiving dental implants takes a series of appointments and anywhere between six months and one year. Though this may seem like an extended period of time, it’s important to remember that with proper care, implants can last a lifetime. 

At your first appointment, the team performs an oral exam and takes a series of X-rays to get a better look at your tooth roots and jaw bone. If you have healthy gums and a healthy jaw bone, the team moves forward with treatment. 

First, your provider administers a local anesthetic to numb your teeth and gums. Next, your dentist places a dental implant into the bone sockets of your missing teeth. After anchoring it to your jaw bone, the team provides you with a list of recovery instructions. You return home and wait 6-12 weeks for your implant to heal and fully fuse to your jaw bone. 

At your second appointment, your provider examines your mouth to ensure healing is complete. If everything looks good, your dentist administers a local anesthetic and attaches a connector to each implant. Finally, your dentist takes molds of your permanent teeth. The team sends your molds to a laboratory that manufactures the crowns or other prosthetic replacements for your implants. 

A week or two later, you return for your third and final appointment. At this appointment, your dentist administers a local anesthetic and screws your permanent prosthetic into your implants. The process typically takes 45-60 minutes. 

If you’re missing teeth, it’s important to take action and dental implants can help. Call or click to book your appointment at the practice of Goli Javaher, DDS today.