Implant Dentistry
Dental Implants
What are Dental Implants?
Dental implants are the closest replacement of your missing tooth or teeth. They are artificial teeth made of safe materials (usually titanium), that are inserted into your bone in a screw-like fashion, with a nice, realistic replica of your tooth on top.
Overview on Dental Implants
Dental implant treatment consists of 2 phases: A surgical and restorative phase.
In the surgical phase, dental implants (screw-like posts) are surgically placed in your jawbone, where they serve as the roots of missing teeth. The implants fuse with your jawbone over a healing period (3~ 6 months). After the healing period the implants are ready for the restorative phase.
In the restorative phase, the healing of implants are verified. Then the artificial tooth/teeth and the supporting parts are made and attached to the implants to restore the missing tooth/teeth’s look and function, much like original teeth.
Why Dental Implants?
Benefits and advantages of dental implants include the following:
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Dental Implants behave like natural teeth
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Dental Implants can last a lifetime
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Dental Implants prevent bone loss
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Dental Implants keep adjacent teeth stable
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Dental Implants can help prevent facial sagging and premature aging
Implant Crown
Implant crowns or single-tooth implants can be used in people who are missing one or more teeth. They consists of three parts; implant, abutment and crown. The implant, made of titanium, replaces the missing root. The crown is the restoration made of porcelain. The abutment connects the implant to the crown.
Implant Bridge
Implant bridge or implant-supported bridge is used when more than one tooth is missing. An implant-supported bridge is similar to a regular dental bridge, but it is supported by implants and not by natural teeth. The crowns of each missing tooth are connected to each other to form one piece. Where chewing pressure is not severe, not all crowns have to be supported by implants. For example, three missing teeth can be restored with just two implants and a bridge.
It also may be used when your dentist is concerned that you might put too much pressure on individual implants that are not connected to each other. In such cases, one implant is placed in the jawbone for each missing tooth.
No More Fear For Implant Surgery
The traditional method of implant surgery required making major incisions and flaps on the gums, which resulted in higher chances of feeling severe pain after surgery. Significant reduction in surgical pain could be achieved by incision-free surgery which is only possible from utilizing cutting-edge technology. Some of the benefits that you can get from incision-free surgery include, but not limited to :
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Minimal pain during and after the surgery
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Almost no bleeding during the surgery
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None or mild post-op swelling
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No bone resorption because there is no disruption of blood supply
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Much lower risk of infection than conventional procedure
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No gagging or breathing problem during surgery due to lack of simultaneous irrigation
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Minimal noise or vibration due its innovative low-speed drilling
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Almost impossible to make damages to nerves or other important anatomic structures
Virtual planning
Since surgeons had no other way of knowing the exact internal oral anatomy of the patient with conventional dental x-rays, they could not help but cut the gums to secure necessary visibility of the bone, and access the implant site. However, with the cutting edge technology we are now able to provide implant surgeries with minimal cutting on your gums.
As you see in the following video, virtual planning is made on a planning software that combines 3D CBCT x rays and 3D intraoral scan. The surgeon can determine ideal location and size of the implants based on these very accurate data to get rid of possibility of damaging important anatomic structures like a big nerves or blood vessels.
Incision-free surgery
Something that is counter-intuitive to many people is that the most pain and discomfort from implant surgery is a result of the cuts on the gums, NOT from the bone.
Thus, decreasing in the length of incision line will bring much less pain and discomfort. Also, while incision is made to detach the gum tissue away from the underlying bone, preparing access holes for implant placement doesn’t require that step. This also make difference in terms of pain and swelling.
Incision usually cause disruption of blood supply by cutting blood vessels so healing capacity of the tissue can be compromised as opposed to non-incision procedures.
Safe surgery
Our incision-free, minimally invasive implant surgery is one of the most conservative approaches to ensure that there is virtually no-pain, quick healing, no-swelling, and maximum safety for the patient. It is safe even for some medically compromised patients, such those who have diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.
Computer-generated surgical guide
The planned position of the implants are exactly transferred to the surgical site by utilizing a computer-generated surgical guide. This guide is designed according the planned implants and fabricated by 3D printing. Since this CAD/CAM is so accurate so that the exact position of the implants are transferred to the desired site without an error.