Services: Dental Implants
Looking for an alternative to traditional bridgework or dentures? Try dental implants at OakPark Dental located in Eau Claire, WI.
Dental implants are a safe, medically proven, esthetic alternative to traditional crowns, bridgework, and dentures. Because implant restoration looks and feels more like natural teeth, they offer new levels of comfort, security and confidence over traditional treatments. For more than two decades, dental implants have been helping to provide quality of life to patients with restorative needs.
How do they work?
A dental implant is a small “anchor” made of titanium that is inserted into the jawbone to take the place of your missing tooth root. After osseointegration (when the surrounding bone has healed to the implant), a replacement tooth is secured to the tip of the implant. This new tooth looks, feels and performs similar to your natural teeth.
What are the benefits?
Choosing dental implants as a treatment option can offer you a number of significant advantages.
1) Maintain anatomy.
If you have missing teeth, the bone begins to shrink over time. Unhealthy bone loss can make your jaw line recede and change your facial structure. Dental implants can help prevent deterioration of the jawbone so your face retains its natural shape.
2) Keep you healthy teeth.
A better long-term alternative to bridgework, dental implants eliminate the need to grind down healthy teeth when replacing one or more adjacent teeth. Your own natural healthy teeth are not compromised.
3) Security.
Securely anchored dental implants do not slip or move. This eliminates some of the key problems of dentures, including poor fit, gum irritation and pain from exposed nerves. The result is superior comfort, reliability, and freedom from embarrassment.
Why have dental implants become so popular?
As our life span increases, the need for some type of permanent dental replacement system becomes very important to our overall health. Dentures and removable bridges have obvious problems: They are loose and unstable. Implants can provide people with dental replacements that are both functional and esthetic. The demand was always there, we just needed the tools to fulfill that demand.
How long after a dental implant is placed can it be used to anchor my new teeth?
The protocol that was originally developed clearly states that we must wait six months in the lower jaw and twelve months in the upper jaw before we can begin to construct the new dental prosthesis that will be supported by the implants. In recent years, however, there has been a movement within the profession to sort of speed up this process. Today we believe that it is possible in selected patients to accelerate the healing time. We are even loading implants in very specific situations right away. However, the general protocol that I favor is 4 months in the lower jaw and 4 months in the upper jaw.
Does it hurt to have dental implants placed?
The actual procedure to surgically place a dental implant is done under local anesthesia and is generally not at all painful. When the anesthesia wears off about three or four hours later, you might expect some discomfort. The level of discomfort is quite different from patient to patient, but most patients do not have significant problems. Some patients do have varying degrees of pain or discomfort which may last for several days. Swelling along with black and blueing may also develop.
In cases where there is prolonged pain, you should see your dentist right away. Prolonged pain is not a good sign with dental implants and although it does not always mean failure, the cause of the pain should be determined as soon as possible. If an implant is not properly integrating into the adjacent bone or if an infection develops, the implant may have to be removed.
A Bridge or a Dental Implant?
Perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions is whether or not to use a fixed ("permanent") bridge or a dental implant to replace one or two missing teeth. Suppose you are missing your lower left first molar. If a fixed bridge were to be used, your dentist would cut down the adjacent teeth (the second molar and the second bicuspid) and fit a three unit fixed bridge over those two teeth. The missing tooth would be called a pontic and it would be effectively replaced by the three unit bridge. If your dentist were to use an implant with a crown on it, he would place an implant in the site of the original first molar. He could do this immediately or at some date after the first molar was removed. There is no time limit here. The implant will take about 3 months to connect with the bone and then at that time, your dentist can construct a single crown on the implant to replace the missing first molar.
The cost of each one of these procedures varies from office to office, but a three unit fixed bridge costs about the same as an implant and a crown. The actual decision to do one over the other rests with you and your dentist. One technique is not inherently better than the other and each depends upon how you present and your dentist’s skills.
