Dental Implant Placement 101: Everything You Must Know Before Getting Implants Placed

Are you like many people missing a tooth or several teeth and searching for a solution looking great, feeling comfortable, and functioning like your natural tooth? The only answer that satisfies all your requirements is dental implants requiring multiple dental procedures for surgical placement of the implant into your jawbone.

After hearing about dental implants, you may decide to seek the best dental implants available on the market as replacements for your missing teeth. However, it helps to understand dental implants are the gold standard solution for missing teeth. If you decide to have them as a replacement solution, you have chosen wisely because the implant will likely remain in your mouth for your lifetime.

Deciphering Dental Implants

Dental implants replace your lost tooth roots with a titanium screw. The titanium post firmly adheres to your jaw by integrating with your jawbone in a process called osseointegration. After completion of osseointegration, a customized porcelain crown is attached permanently to the implant.

Dental implants don’t require any special maintenance other than the dental care practices you use for your natural teeth. Dental implants are an excellent alternative for dental bridges or dentures.

Are You Suitable for Dental Implants?

When you decide to get dental implants, you must schedule an appointment with your dentist for an assessment to determine whether you are suitable for implant placements. Most people are ideal for dental implants except for people with:

• Diseases or illnesses like uncontrolled diabetes, osteoporosis, and bleeding infections.
• People with insufficient jawbone that cannot be resolved with bone grafts.
• Smokers unwilling to quit the habit.
• People who cannot commit to complete the process or maintain excellent dental hygiene.

So long as you are willing to adhere to your dentist’s instructions and have sufficient jawbone, you can have dental implants to replace your lost teeth.

What Kind of Dental Implant Are You Seeking?

There are different types of dental implants available on the market you can have to replace your missing teeth. If you have lost a single tooth, you can have an endosteal implant embedded deep into your jawbone, functioning as an artificial tooth root.

If you have lost all your teeth in a dental arch, you can discuss having full mouth dental implants to hold an entire arch of fixed dentures. Any teeth remaining in the arch undergo extraction before the dentist proceeds with the full mouth implant placement. You can even have your new teeth on the same day after undergoing the dental procedure. Unfortunately, if performed by an inexperienced dentist, the immediate placement of artificial teeth can interfere with bone healing lowering the chances of success of the process.

If you need full mouth dental implants, you will likely receive all on 4 dental implants where four to six implants are embedded into your jawbone and allowed to heal. You can have a dental prosthesis attached to the implant straightaway remembering the chances of failure are high and may affect the procedure. However, if aesthetics are your primary concern and you are willing to risk the success of the treatment, the dentist isn’t going to stop you from having artificial teeth immediately after dental implant placement. However, they will likely warn you against it for your good.

Are Dental Implants Affordable?

Dental implants are tooth replacement solutions requiring multiple appointments with your dentist and a team of professionals, including an oral surgeon, periodontist, prosthodontist, anesthesiologist, et cetera. The team is merely to plan your specific treatment and doesn’t include the cost of the dental implant. That said, we must fairly state there is nothing like affordable dental implants, and the minimal cost of having dental implants to replace missing teeth is around $ 4000-$ 5000.

If you have dental insurance, you can expect reimbursement of part of the costs but must still prepare yourselves for some expenditure to have natural-looking artificial teeth in your mouth.

Dental Implant After-Care

The dentist inserting the implants provides a list of dos and don’ts after the surgery to keep your mouth healthy and infection-free. Some instructions the dentist provides may likely include antibiotics, a mouthwash, advice on foods to have and to avoid, cessation of smoking, and over-the-counter medicines for pain relief. So long as you follow your dentist’s instructions, you can expect the inserted implant to integrate with your jawbone in approximately three to nine months, after which you can have customized crowns over it.

After getting your artificial tooth or teeth on the dental implants, don’t assume you can begin neglecting oral hygiene because you don’t have the flexibility to do so. Neglecting oral hygiene ensures that you develop gum disease to harm your gums and jawbone, weakening the implant making you susceptible to further tooth loss, searching for more solutions to replace them.