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A loss of a tooth or many teeth can create unsightly gaps and dark spaces that adversely affect your smile. In addition to that, there will be functional deficits in chewing of food and alterations to the way you speak. Locally, around the area where the tooth was lost, we commonly see that the adjacent teeth start to tip into the empty space and the smile can become crooked. The most common procedure we now perform to restore an empty space is by the placement of an implant.
There are various types of implants. They range in brand, size, surface coating and design strategies. In our clinic, we only use brands that have the broadest worldwide support and we only place implants with the help of a specialist surgeon. The design and size of an implant used on a patient will be largely determined by the anatomy of the surrounding structures.
Dental implants are the treatment of choice because it comes as close to recreating all the dental structures as possible. A titanium screw is placed into the bone by a specialist surgeon. The placement of the screw helps minimise bone loss and the gum aesthetics are better maintained than when compared with bridges and removable dentures. The main focus for a dentist is that as a single stand alone restoration, an implant does not adversely affect the adjacent teeth and structures. Hygiene is improved and patients can now clean the tooth normally like it’s your natural tooth and they can bite as hard as they can as with the adjacent teeth.
The implantation process can be lengthy or short (done immediately). Commonly, implants are placed in 2 stages. The first stage is the surgical placement of the titanium implant screw into the bone where the tooth is missing. This is then covered up by gum or an implant healing cap. We then wait about 3 months for the implant to heal and osseous integrate with the bone. This is the time taken for the bone cells to adhere to the surface of the implant. Once the implant screw integrates with the bone, a crown, bridge or denture is attached on top of it, thus completing the treatment.
Dental implants costs vary according to the type of implant system used and whether a specialist is involved. Here at Dental Essence we use long established and trusted brands that have the broadest world wide support because many of our expatriate patients require implant maintenance overseas and all our surgery is done by our visiting consultant oral surgeons. In addition to that, there may be costs associated with bone grafting and further tissue management