The Dental Implants Process Demystified

When we first mention dental implants as an option for patients with missing teeth, they often have no idea what to expect. The entire idea seems foreign to some patients and frightening to others. While the dental implant supported tooth replacement process does require a little more time than other tooth replacement options, the results last longer and look and feel more natural. If this sounds like something you may be interested in, please contact the La Plata Dental team to schedule your dental implant consultation.

Dental Implant Consultation

The first step in restoring your smile with versatile, effective dental implant supported tooth replacement prosthetics is a one-on-one consultation. We assess your smile using visual and manual examination as well as diagnostic x-rays. We also need to learn a little bit more about your past experience with medical or dental surgeries as well as any chronic health conditions that affect your ability to heal. All of this information will help us to determine whether or not implant-retained restoration is the best option for your unique case.

Tooth Loss & Extraction

Patients who choose to proceed with dental implant restoration have often already lost one or more teeth. This could mean a single avulsed (knocked out) tooth that occurred due to traumatic injury or more advanced tooth loss. For these patients, there’s no need for an extraction appointment. Instead, they go straight to their surgical implantation appointment. Following tooth extraction, patients may choose implant supported tooth replacement. In this case, they may be able to have the dental implant placed on the same day the tooth is removed, but some need to wait one or more weeks to allow the tissue to heal.

Surgical Implant Placement

To complete the initial phase of dental implant restoration, your Framingham Premier Dental team works with a local periodontist who provides safe, effective dental implant placement procedures. Additionally, this skilled periodontal specialist can perform preparatory treatments like bone and soft tissue grafts to improve your chances of successfully completing the dental implant process.

Dental Restoration

Once the preparatory treatment phase is completed, it will take between three and six months for your implant to fully fuse with the jawbone mimicking the lost tooth root. Following this fusion process, you return to our office where we’ll design and attach a custom dental restoration. Depending on the number and location of your missing teeth, we can use a variety of tooth replacement options. In most cases, we’ll recommend the following dental implant restorations:

• Single tooth – one dental implant is used to support a custom dental crown
• Two consecutive teeth – two dental crowns may be fused together and attached to either one or two implant posts
• Several consecutive teeth – a row of fused together replacement teeth are anchored to a dental implant post at both ends
• Numerous consecutive and nonconsecutive teeth – a partial denture is attached to three to six dental implant posts depending on the number and location of missing teeth
• One or both full rows of teeth – a full denture is typically supported by about four dental implant posts, but some patients may need eight or more