Dental implants replace the roots of teeth lost due to accident, injury, tooth decay, gum disease or necessary extractions. In generations past, the default remedy for the loss of some or all teeth in a single arch was a bridge or full or partial denture. Increasingly, people are now opting for dental implants in New Westminster that most effectively replace the dental function lost with the demise of their natural teeth.
The process of receiving dental implants near you is a lengthy, costly and relatively invasive one. Once the assessment and planning stage is complete and a treatment plan has been established, you will undergo surgery to have titanium implants placed into your jaw bone at precise locations where anchors are required to hold your future crown, bridge or denture. Over a months-long period and through the process of osseointegration, your body accepts the biocompatible titanium post as natural tissue and, except in rare cases, fuses inexorably to it. This surgical stage of the implants procedure is performed by an oral surgeon who specializes in dental implants near you.
Once the fusion process is complete and you have fully healed from the implant surgery, a fastening mechanism called an abutment is connected to the implant and then to the final restoration being fit into your mouth. What will make up that final restoration will depend on the number of teeth being replaced and what type of function the dentist in New Westminster is attempting to restore. Most commonly, implants support crowns to replace single teeth, bridges to support multiple adjacent teeth, partial dentures, and even full dentures replacing all teeth in a single arch.
There are two main types of dental implants: endosteal and subperiosteal. Endosteal implants are rooted directly into your jaw as described above. This is the more common and preferred approach. Subperiosteal implants place a metal frame below your gum tissue that itself becomes fixed to your jaw over time and to which titanium posts are attached to connect to restorations.
Good candidates for dental implants require a minimum level of bone density and mass to sustain the placement of dental implants. Chronic health conditions such as diabetes and habits such as smoking can interfere with the healing and fusion process on which implants rely such that people with uncontrolled diabetes and who will continue to smoke may not be ideal candidates. Where having suboptimal jaw bone density or mass has previously ruled out some candidates, innovation now means that those assessments can be made on a case by case basis. In many cases, pre-implant bone grafting can supplement the original jaw bone mass to the extent required to make implants possible. In other situations, implants can be placed in the face’s zygomatic bone rather than the jaw bone.
Dental implants offer the distinct advantages of permanence, stability, seamlessness and natural function albeit via a process that is much longer, more invasive and more expensive than non-implant-supported alternatives. While implants are not, for those reasons, accessible to everyone they have clearly established the preferred level of function and performance in the market today. The first step to determining if you are a good candidate for dental implants is easy, fast and free. Simply contact a dentist near you to let them know you’re interested in dental implants and to ask that a consultation be scheduled.
