Titanium

A dental implant is made of 99.99% Commercially Pure Titanium. This titanium is treated on the surface to produce a texture that becomes a part of your bone structure. This allows the titanium implant fixture to become a rigid, stable structure to attach teeth to. These anchors either will support teeth, bridges, or dentures.

Once the implant body heals after surgical placement (usually 2 to 3 months in the lower jaw, or 4 to 6 months in the upper jaw) impressions or molds will be made of the implant and nearby teeth. These molds will then be used to custom fabricate prosthetic teeth for you. These teeth will look and feel like natural teeth, you will forget that you have a prosthetic tooth. Studies have shown that once integrated an implant will last many, many years!

Surgical Process

After proper diagnosis and all treatment options and financial options have been discussed, you will have a decision to make whether implants are the right decision for you. When you decide that this treatment option is the right decision, molds of your teeth and a diagnostic wax-up will be made. This information will direct the location anatomically of the implant placement, and predict the outcome of the restoration.

The surgical process is relatively mild. A series of drills are used to prepare the site for the surgical placement of the implant. Expect some swelling in the area that was implanted due to the healing process of your body. Swelling, soreness and minor bleeding is NORMAL, and should subside within a couple of days, the oral cavity heals very quickly.

Grafting

The area in which an implant is to be placed needs to have the right volume of jawbone structure. The height, width and bone density are all important in the success of the implant. The oral surgeon will evaluate your structures with either a panoramic x-ray or a 3-D CT image. Bone grafting is sometimes necessary to supplement the bony jawbone structure for a firm anchorage of the dental implant.

The need for bone grafting may become apparent at the time of X-ray evaluation. Sometimes, inadequate bone volume is not discovered until the day of surgery.

In the case where there is a tooth missing and the teeth on either side are in relatively good shape, and there is adequate bone structure to support an implant then an implant is usually recommended.

There are three types of bone grafts, each named with accroding to the source of the bone used in the procedure:

  • In an ALLOGRAFT procedure, either synthetic bone or processed cadaver bone is used to augment the jaw bone. This is the preferred type of implant due to the same mineral elements of your own body.
  • In an AUTOGENOUS bone grafting procedure, bone is harvested from one area of the body and transferred to another. This is the second most preferred method due to the extra healing time of the donor site of your body. It also has identical cellular elements and has improved healing.
  • In a XENOGRAFT procedure, BOVINE (cow) bone is used.

      • Post Treatment

      Dental implant placement is a surgical process. We try to make it as pleasant experience as possible. The surgical process itself is painless due to local anesthesia, but afterwards there may be some minor swelling and soreness. You will very quickly return to normal function in a day or two following the surgical process.

      Antibiotics and pain medications are given to minimize the post-operative discomfort. You will be seen for a 1-week follow up after your procedure to check your healing process.

      We have a dentist on call 24/7. If there are questions or concerns in off-hours, please call our office to reach the on-call doctor.

      Restoration

      There are many restorative options for every case. No two implants are the same. It is the proper diagnosis and case planning that makes an implant case a success. The advanced training of our specialists and clinical expertise that will match the proper restoration for your situation.

      Our goal is to provide an outstanding esthetic result, while placing a problem free restoration that will be durable for many, many years.

      Implants will look, feel, and function like natural teeth. And similarly, implants will need maintenence by our hygienist in order to clean the areas in which you can’t reach brushing. The monitoring of implants is also important in order to document the stability and quality of the bone levels around the implant.