Dental Implants

Dental implants are an area of dentistry that really revolutionize the field. Oftentimes a patient can have a root canal on say a back tooth early in life, and it goes with the crown, and then eventually these teeth can break. The tooth is removed, and a bone graft material is placed in the area of the tooth removal. Very safe, predictable process. That bone graft material then takes the process of integrating. And then with our 3D imaging, we're able to take an X-ray of this area and tooth and view the bone quality in three dimensions and plan out a tooth implant to go in there. The implant then goes in, has to integrate for a period of time, and then a tooth goes on the implant. Not all dentists can do dental implants or are comfortable. I received some additional training in implant dentistry through an advanced education in general dentistry residency program, but nowadays with modern technology and up-to-date implant dentistry, I consider all patients to be a good candidate for dental implants. With simple single tooth implant dentistry, oftentimes it's a very simple process with some pain control regimens. Postoperatively, patients often find very little discomfort from receiving a dental implant. Some of the main benefits of dental implants is that when a tooth is lost in an area, a traditional bridge can be done in which the adjacent teeth have to be cut down to put a bridge in the area, but I like to tell patients when you do a traditional bridge, you make a one-tooth problem make it a three-tooth problem. The big benefits of dental implants is that they not only act to serve as a root foundation to put a tooth on the implant, but they also act to preserve your bone in the area which would otherwise be lost if the patient were to lose a tooth.