Am I a Candidate for Dental Implants?
Dental implants can change your life, whether you’re missing a tooth or two or wearing dentures and wishing you weren’t. Here’s how to tell whether they’re right for you.
Your Complete Guide to Getting Dental Implants
When a tooth goes missing, whether due to decay, trauma, or extraction, the vacancy causes several problems.
One or more missing teeth allow the neighboring teeth to shift. The misalignment leads to bite issues, which leads to chewing, speaking, and digestive problems.
The loss of a tooth or teeth also exposes a greater surface area, where bacteria can settle and lead to gum disease, and gum disease that enters your bloodstream can affect your heart and lungs. What’s more, missing teeth deprive your jawbone of vital pressure in the vacant area, so your bone tissue gradually deteriorates, changing your facial structure.
There are many reasons to replace missing teeth, and dental implants are the gold standard replacement option. But what does the process entail?
Board Certified Periodontists, Dr. Caesar Sweidan and Dr. Laura Smith at St. Tammany Periodontics & Implants have compiled this guide to give you a step-by-step overview of what to expect when you sign up for dental implants.
Step 1: The consultation
Your first dental implant appointment is your consultation. This is when we examine your teeth — and the places where you’re missing teeth — review your medical history, and take your X-rays. We also evaluate your jawbone to ensure it can accommodate a dental implant.
We take time to discuss what you want. You have options for replacing your teeth, so we help you navigate them and consider all factors, such as care and maintenance, costs, recovery time, and long-term success rates.
Step 2: Creating your personalized treatment plan
Based on the information we gather during your consultation, we develop a plan addressing your specific needs. Since each patient is different, no two dental implant treatments are alike.
Your treatment plan outlines the details of your treatment, including how many dental implants you need, the type of implants we plan to use, the sedation methods, the timeline, and the overall costs.
Depending on your needs, your treatment plan may include:
- Surgical extraction to remove an unhealthy tooth
- Bone grafting to shore up inadequate jawbone material
- Sinus lift to create space for the dental implant
If you do need one or more of these procedures to prepare your oral cavity to receive a dental implant, we proceed with the implant after you’ve healed. If you don’t need these treatments, we move to step 3.
Step 3: Getting your dental implant
We use the most advanced technology to place your dental implant. We’ve streamlined the procedure to keep you comfortable throughout the appointment. You can expect us to:
- Administer a local anesthetic to numb the area
- Give you sedation to keep you relaxed
- Make an incision in your gum
- Drill a small hole into your jawbone
- Place the implant (which looks like a screw) into your jawbone
- Add bone grafting material to stabilize the implant
It takes several weeks for your gums to heal and up to six months for your jawbone to bond with the implant.
Step 4: The abutment and crown
We monitor your progress during follow-up visits. When healing is complete, we place an abutment on top of the implant post, which acts as a connector for the final piece — the crown.
The crown is the tooth part of the dental implant. We design it to match your other teeth and fit perfectly with your bite. No one will know you have an artificial tooth — and you’ll have a tough time remembering it yourself.
That’s it, except for a few follow-up appointments to ensure your implant is secure, you’ve healed, and you’re not experiencing any issues. Your dental implant is complete and yours for life.
To learn more about dental implants or to schedule a consultation, call us at St. Tammany Periodontics & Implants in Slidell or Covington, Louisiana, or request an appointment online.
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