Implants
Why Should I Replace Missing Teeth?
When you lose a tooth, the best thing for your oral health is to
have that tooth replaced. A tooth that is missing can affect
your "bite", your ability to speak, eat, and chew, and can
cause an increased burden on your remaining teeth resulting in
muscle pains in your jaws as well as headaches. One of the
ways that dentists can replace a missing tooth is by the use of
dental implants.
What Is A Dental Implant?
In order to describe what a dental implant is, lets take a look
at what a real tooth consists of. A real tooth has roots and a
crown. The crown is the part of the tooth that you can see and
eat with. The root is the part of the tooth that is beneath
the crown and anchors the tooth through the gum tissue to the
jawbone. Losing a tooth causes you to lose both the crown and
the root. So, in order to replace your tooth, we have to
create a new root and that is what the dental implant is.
The dental implant, which is a titanium root, is fitted to a
socket that is created in your jaw. Once the implant has
been created in the jaw, the bone around the implant needs to heal
for up to six months. This is the initial stage of healing and
at the end of this time period, a support post called an abutment is
placed on the implant and then a new crown will be placed on top.
When Are Implants Placed?
An implant is inserted at the location where the missing tooth
was. This replacement happens at approximately three months
after the tooth was removed. During these three months, the
socket walls of bone, if they are intact and fairly thick, where the
old tooth was will grow new bone to replace or refill the empty
socket. The socket usually is completely filled with bone by
the time you are ready for replacement by the implant (about three
months later). If your tooth has been missing for a long time, the
bone that is adjacent to the socket will grow thinner because the
stimulation that is created by the tooth root is no longer there.
As much as one third of your jaw's thickness can be lost in the year
following tooth extraction. Too much bone loss can mean that
you may have to have additional bone grafted into the area so that
the implant will be supported adequately.
How Many Implants Do I Need?
Typically, one implant is placed per missing tooth. This
rule does not apply, however, to the back teeth. The back
teeth have two or three roots. The approach that is most
commonly used is to replace back teeth with larger implants or more
than one implant per tooth. Using more implants per tooth will
be used especially in cases where there has been moderate bone loss
or if the person uses excessive biting force on the back teeth.
Some treatment systems can use 4 to 6 implants for a whole jaw.
The doctor will help you decide what is best for your situation. |
