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Dental Implant Procedure
Dental implants are
surgically inserted into your jaw bone while you remain under anesthesia. If you have more than one implant placed
this procedure will be lengthy. Surgery
time will vary greatly depending on the number of implants. For each of the two
visits placement of one implant takes more than an hour.
Once you’re under local
anesthesia, the first step for implant procedure is the exposure of the bone
where the implant is being placed. Once
the bone is exposed the implant will be placed into the jawbone. The actual fixtures that are inserted into
the bone are called endosteal implants.
They are made of titanium or a titanium alloy because this metal does
not adversely interact with biological tissue and it fuses really well with the
bone.
Once the dental implant is
inserted a cover screw is placed in and then the wound is closed with stitches
and allowed to heal. Typically
placements in the lower jaw need to heal about three months, while placements
in the upper jaw usually take about six months.
Once the healing is
finished, in a second surgical procedure, the implant is uncovered, the cover
screw is removed and a healing abutment or a temporary crown is inserted in the
implant. These temporary crowns are generally used for esthetic reasons, when
the implant can be seen. Both healing abutments and temporary crowns allow the
tissue around the implant to be trained to grow around the final implant – a
prosthetic tooth. After about two
months the soft tissue will be healed enough to accept the prosthetic
tooth.
In order to create a perfect
tooth impressions are taken to make a custom abutment that takes into account
the shape of the neck of the implant.
On occasion the prosthetic tooth is attached to a gold cylinder that can
be screwed into the abutment or it can be directly cemented onto the
abutment. This is a process that takes
more than one stage -- the two surgical procedures are separated by a lengthy healing
time in order to ensure stability in the final implant.
Implants, if they are
successful, are like having a permanent tooth. If the procedure goes well this
dental implant can allow a patient who might have lost an anchor tooth continue
being able to have a bridge or just partial dentures as well. Occasionally
dental implants are the only answer for people who have lost all their teeth
and are not able to wear dentures.
Dental implants are very expensive and are really time consuming to have
done but having them not only improves aesthetic appearance but also quality of
eating – chewing is finally possible and easy!
Make sure you only have a
qualified dentist do your implants. You must research and find out how many
implant surgeries the dentist has done – try talking to other patients. Make sure you contact the American Dental
Association to see if your dentist has been reported.
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