Did you know that dental implants have a 98% success rate, and could last for decades to come? Whether you have one missing tooth, or most of them have become lost, then you could benefit from implant placement. In today’s blog, your Santa Rosa, CA, oral surgeons will explain how we address missing teeth with dental implants.
The Loss of Your Teeth
When we lose our natural teeth to injury, infection, or gum disease, this could mean major changes for the health and stability of our smiles, not to mention to negative impacts on our appearance. Tooth loss is linked to misalignment, as the teeth shift from position with time and could crowd, overlap, or become crooked. The loss of natural teeth also upsets the balance of your bite and could even strain jaw joints, meaning complications like TMJ disorder or bruxism (chronic teeth grinding) are possible. More severe cases could not only mean trouble eating or speaking clearly, but also an aged appearance as the jawbone tissues around the lost root breaks down with time.
Preparing Your Smile
Dental implants are inserted into your jaw with oral surgery, the biocompatible titanium posts then acting as new tooth roots. Not only do they support a crown or prosthetic, but they stimulate the growth of jawbone tissues to prevent an aged appearance or further tooth loss. First, we need to examine your smile. If you have lost jawbone tissue, we may need to perform ridge augmentation or sinus lift to rebuild the area around the missing tooth and prepare your smile for implant placement. For those likely to receive dentures, we could extract any remaining teeth as well. Using digital scanning technology and surgical guides, we carefully plan the process to protect sensitive tissues and nerves, and ensure your new root best supports a crown or set of dentures.
Placement and Restoration
The posts will be carefully guided into place. For an individual dental implant, we then attach an abutment and a crown to complete the replacement. For those with dentures, we attach the abutments to between four and eight post per arch, and then attach a custom set of dentures. You then enjoy a prosthetic that never slips, and could last for decades to come as opposed to just 5 to 10 years. If you have any questions about how we approach tooth loss with implant dentistry, then contact our team today.
Do You Have Questions About Implant Dentistry?
We would like to help people with missing teeth obtain a full smile again with advanced technology. To learn more about repairing smiles and addressing missing teeth, then schedule a consultation by calling Santa Rosa Oral Surgery in Santa Rosa, CA, today at 707-545-4625.