Description

Before carrying out any treatment, the surgeon will take a medical history, give a full assessment and then start the implant work. This involves making models of your upper and lower jaw before the titanium body is implanted. The dental surgeon may also make a temporary denture or bridge for you to wear while your gum and bone heal. The titanium body is then inserted, under a local anaesthetic, into the jaw.

Once the implant has bonded naturally with your bone, the dentist will make a final model of your jaws. An exact size and colour match with the surrounding teeth is then made so that the replacement tooth looks completely natural and fits perfectly with your own teeth.

Using the most advanced dental technology, dental implants not only look perfectly natural but they leave you with a secure new tooth, healthily bonded with your own bone tissue.

A dental implant is an exact replica of a natural tooth as it replaces both the crown and root. It is made of porcelain with a metal core. The secret lies in the small titanium body that is inserted as an artificial tooth root into the jaw. Within a few months, the living bone grows around the titanium body forming a permanent secure bond, just like a healthy tooth root. Then a metal post is fixed onto the bonded titanium body and the replacement porcelain tooth, or crown, is attached to the post. The result: a perfectly natural-looking tooth.

All the common forms of tooth replacement, such as bridges or dentures can be replaced by dental implants.

A dental implant is essentially a substitute for a natural root and commonly it is screw or cylinder shaped. Each implant is placed into a socket carefully drilled at the precise location of the intended tooth. If an implant has a screw-thread on its outer surface it can be screwed into position and if it does not, it is usually tapped into place. The main aim during installation of any implant is to achieve immediate close contact with the surrounding bone. This creates an initial stability, which over time is steadily enhanced by further growth of bone into microscopic roughnesses on the implant surface.

In order to support replacement teeth, dental implants normally have some form of internal screw thread or post space that allows a variety of components to be fitted. Once fitted, these components provide the foundation for long-term support of crowns, bridges or dentures.

If you are missing just one natural tooth, then one implant is normally all that will be needed to provide a replacement. Larger spaces created by two, three or more missing teeth do not necessarily need one implant per tooth, however the exact number of implants will depend upon the quality and volume of bone at each potential implant site.