DENTAL IMPLANTS
Dental implants are becoming the new gold standard for replacing missing teeth, because implants fit, feel and function like natural teeth. We want to see your smile, and there is nothing more rewarding that helping our patients gain their happiness and dental health. Our patients at Madison Dental are overwhelmingly happy with implant-based restorative options.
Compared to dentures, bridges and crowns, dental implants are a popular and effective long-term solution for people who suffer from missing teeth, failing teeth. There is far less of a learning curve when patients are becoming acclimated to implants, as compared to any other solution to restore missing teeth and remedy compromised, damaged, or failing dentition.
Implants benefit our patients in so many ways, in restoring patients’ beautiful smile lines, and also maintaining jaw bone and a natural facial profile, as well as keeping your bone structure intact. Implants also can restore chewing functionality, if you’ve noticed a change in your bite or feel you can’t eat the same foods you’ve always enjoyed, as a result of damaged, broken, or missing teeth.
Dental implants can replace one missing tooth, or multiple teeth (using an implant bridge), or an entire arch of teeth (for example, when a patient is missing all their upper teeth, or all of their lower teeth). Dr. Diana Pappa and her team at Madison Dental Studio can assist in restoring your smile, in all of the many ways that implants can be utilized, and help you improve your smile and oral health.
What makes dental implants feel completely comfortable and secure?
Dr. Diana Pappa uses a titanium implant fixture that, over time, actually fuses to the living bone cells of the jaw. This bond forms a strong and durable anchor for new teeth, meaning there’s less slippage and minimized movement. And if you’ve ever worn dentures, you’d agree that even the best made set of dentures will sometimes move, due to the lack of anchorage to the bone. There are also far fewer difficulties eating with dental implants, and our Madison Dental Studio patients love to brag that their lives change drastically as a result of their improved oral health, thanks to implants and implant-dentures.
Dental implants typically have three parts:
- The implant: A sterile, titanium screw-like piece, that serves as a root for your new teeth. This is what attaches to your jaw and anchors things in place.
- The abutment: A connector that supports and holds a tooth, or set of teeth, securely on the implant. This piece is removable only by your doctor when it’s needed, with special dental instrumentation. It stays in place for all patient-related purposes, once it’s secured.
- The implant crown: This is the part of the tooth that you can see above the gum line when you smile. It’s usually made of tooth-colored zirconium or porcelain for durability and for an an appealing esthetic dental result.
You can use dental implants to replace a single tooth, multiple teeth or a full upper and/or lower set of teeth. If you need to restore a full arch, you may be a perfect candidate for the full mouth teeth replacement treatment, like a hybrid denture solution. sometimes called All-On-X, or All-On-Four.
In an All-on-4 case, a surgery will have the most appropriate number of implants for your smile placed, sometimes 4 implants and then will attach a full arch of teeth, giving the procedure its name, where all the teeth on the upper arch are replaced, utilizing only four implants.
Implants can help anchor your dentures in place too, if you have existing, but poor fitting dentures. Implant Locators are also helpful in creating implant-dentures that snap into place and are removable.
Dental implants now have decades of research supporting their success, stability, and how they greatly improve the quality of life in millions of patients worldwide.
Just as dental implants have emerged as the preferred choice of permanent teeth replacement over the past 40+ years, Dr. Diana Pappa and her team and Madison Dental Studio would love to help you discuss how we can help improve your oral health, smile, and happiness with dental implants, as part of your treatment plan in helping you achieve a smile you can be proud of.
