Treatments: Dental implants
A dental implant is a small titanium screw or cylinder. The implant screw (implant fixture) fuses with the patient's jaw bone through a healing process called 'osseointegration'.
It then acts as a replacement 'root' of a tooth and is able to support a single tooth or when combined with other implants support several false teeth. After a suitable period of time has elapsed to allow healing, you will be ready for the placement of your replacement tooth/teeth or restoration.
Implant treatment often involves crowns, bridges or dentures: these are used as replacements for missing teeth.
Advantages of implants include:
- No damage to neighbouring teeth:
- Teeth, next to toothless gap, have to be prepared for bridges or crowns. Often they have to be cut to reduce their size which weakens them.
- With dental implants, no preparation is required that will affect neighbouring teeth.
- Dental implants help to preserve jaw bone:
- The natural root of a tooth forms a unit which had been anchored by bone underneath. When a tooth is extracted the bone shrinks because has nothing to support.
