Dental Implants
A dental implant is a small screw made of titanium, that is well-tolerated and integrates readily by the body. It is used to replace your broken down or missing tooth. Under anaesthesia the dental implant is carefully inserted into your jaw to act in the same way as a normal tooth root so it can securely hold the artificial tooth in your mouth.
Once you’ve decided on going for an implant, your dentist will refer you to our Implantologist who will discuss your case with you in more detail. The consultation with the Implantologist will usually go through all of your options and is a good opportunity to discuss any concerns or questions you may have about the treatment itself. Following this, the Implantologist will request you go for more detailed scans and images to assess the bone levels in your jaw to aid the meticulous planning of your implant placement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our implantologist will always ensure you are sufficiently numb before starting with any treatment. Like with any surgery or elective procedure, there may be a few days of slight swelling or light tenderness in the treated area however, this is easily managed with over the counter pain killers such as paracetamol and Ibuprofen (provided you are able to take Ibuprofen medically). If necessary, our implantologist may prescribe stronger painkillers for your comfort.
It is sometimes possible to place the final tooth/restoration immediately after insertion of the implant however, at your consultation appointment our implantologist will discuss the best way to restore the implant and how long this may take.
If the final crown or implant-fixed denture cannot be attached immediately, an aesthetic temporary tooth replacement is placed until the healing and integration of the implant with your jaw bone has completed. Once this process has been completed, the final crown or implant-fixed denture can be placed.
Implants have the obvious advantage over bridges in that the neighbouring teeth to the gap don’t require any reshaping in order to support the bridge. As such, implants are non-destructive to the adjacent teeth as compared to bridges.
Implants also work like natural teeth in that they transfer chewing forces evenly into the jaw which helps to preserve the natural bone levels and shape of the jaw. If a tooth is extracted and not replaced with an implant, these stresses that the jaw undergoes during day to day chewing becomes absent and so slowly some of the natural bone level shrinks and disappears.
Whilst dentures are a relatively less invasive method to replacing missing teeth, the disadvantage of dentures as opposed to implants is that dentures are removable rather than being fixed, can be quite bulky and are more susceptible to movement whilst eating.
Absolutely. Implants according to the latest long-term studies have a success rate of over 96%.
