For almost 50 years, dental implants have been the go-to solution for replacing missing or damaged teeth. They look and feel just like natural teeth, they are long-lasting, and they transform both the function of your teeth and your overall appearance. Best of all, getting teeth implants fitted is a painless procedure that can we conduct under a local anaesthetic.
What Are Dental Implants?
A dental implant is essentially an artificial tooth that replicates the crown and root of your tooth. The implant itself is a titanium shaft that is fused to the jawbone. Once in place, a crown or denture, which looks exactly like a real tooth, is mounted on top of it. Implants were first used back in the 1970s, and in the years since, the technology has evolved to the degree that they are every bit as good as your natural teeth.
If several teeth are missing, an implant-supported denture provides a one-stop solution. Here, between two and six implants would be attached to the jawbone, and a denture is then attached to them. Again, the result is both robust and utterly natural in appearance.
Why Do Patients Need Implants?
Dental implants provide a long-term solution for replacing missing teeth. These might have fallen out or been extracted due to decay and infection, or were, perhaps, cracked or damaged in an accident.
Living from day to day with missing teeth presents several problems. The most obvious is a matter of aesthetics, especially when one or more of the highly visible front teeth is missing. There is also an impact on your ability to chew food properly. One absent molar affects the way your teeth work together, making the others work harder and placing uneven pressure on the jaws. Often, the neighbouring teeth will tend to shift towards the gap, changing their overall alignment and reducing the effectiveness of your bite. In some cases, missing teeth can even affect your speech and pronunciation.
Having dental implants fitted solves all of these problems at a single stroke. You will be able to eat whatever you want and will know your teeth are up to the task. On top of that, you will no longer feel self-conscious about flashing people your biggest smile.
Types Of Dental Implants
There are multiple types of implant solutions available. When you sit down with your tooth implant dentist at Glow Dental, we will discuss the best options for your specific circumstances. In brief, the main types are as follows:
- A single implant a single missing tooth. We will first place a titanium implant and once it is stabilised, we craft a crown onto it, which looks and behaves like a natural tooth.
- Multiple implants can be fitted in this way if you have two or more gaps in different locations.
- Full jaw implants are appropriate when all or most of the teeth on either the upper or lower jaw are missing or in poor condition. Here, we place approximately four to six implants into the jawbone. Your replacement teeth are custom-made and then fitted to a frame that attaches to the implants.
