The hole picture
People who have all their natural teeth rarely take into consideration how much they use them, or how difficult life would be without them. As anyone who has one or more missing teeth will tell you, healthy teeth contribute to far more than just an attractive smile.
Although dental implants in Leicester have been available to anyone who needs them for a considerable amount of time now, there still remains a large number of people out there who are not aware that the option of surgically resting a lost tooth on a permanent basis even exists.
How do implants work?
Most common treatments for lost teeth – like dental bridges, veneers or crowns – do not address the missing gap on a structural level, but rather on a purely cosmetic one.
These treatments work by sitting on the gumline of the patient’s teeth are require support and strength from their remaining teeth to function properly.
This can, in turn, cause a lot of problems further down the line as the patient’s remaining teeth often gradually shift further out of place as they try to naturally bridge the gap themselves.
When this happens the bridges or dentures can begin to rub against the patient’s gums and cause discomfort.
Dental implants however do address the problem on a more structural level, by being permanently fused within the jawbone of the patient – in almost the exact same way as a real tooth is embedded.
This allows for patients with dental implants to enjoy far more freedoms and luxuries than someone who opts for more common treatments – such as the ability to eat any food they like and speak without any difficulty.
What does getting implants involve?
Because dental implants are surgically fixed within a patient’s mouth permanently, there is a considerable amount of preliminary examinations and measurements which must be taken before the custom implant can be put in place.
Also, not every patient who is missing a tooth will automatically be eligible for dental implants, as their gums must be of a particular level of health for the process to be successful.
Therefore it is essential that patients first undergo an initial examination by a dental implant professional to establish whether or not implants can be installed – or if any restorative treatment is needed first.
Providing the initial consultation and examination goes well, and no indicators of gum disease are noticed, the actual process of instaling dental implants is relatively simple and goes as follows.
Firstly the patient is administered a localised anaesthetic before a hole is surgically drilled into their jaw in the gap that their lost tooth would be. Into this hole, the dentist will then put a titanium-alloy based socket, before resealing the hole.
Over a short healing period, this socket and the patient’s jaw tissue and bone will naturally merge themselves together – which means that it will be forever fixed in position as a real tooth would be.
Once this fusion has occurred the practitioner will then reopen the socket and use it as an anchor point to fix a new denture, thus completing the process and allowing the patient to enjoy their new tooth.
