Dental implants are an amazing way to restore a completely lost tooth. Say you have one or more missing teeth due to any reason like – tooth removed due to severe decay, broken tooth which could not be saved, lost tooth due to mobility or trauma or more. Dental implants provide a fixed, permanent replacement of the tooth. They are the perfect way to restore the strength and functionality that was compromised due to a lost tooth. A dental implant might be placed for a single missing tooth or multiple implants might be placed as a foundation to replace more than one tooth.
Why do I need a dental implant?
- To restore the space from a missing tooth - If you have an empty space with no tooth, the teeth adjacent and opposite the space will grow/move into the space. This causes a lot of bite changes, gum issues and increased change of tooth decay. It is important to replace the tooth.
- Chewing - A proper biting or chewing technique is when the forces are distributed evenly among both sides of your oral cavity. Missing teeth might alter these forces, affecting not only your teeth but facial muscles too
- Fixed alternative - Fixed teeth replacement is better than a removable one which you would have to remove and place in every night. Implant is such an alternative where the adjacent teeth will not be disturbed at all
- More than one tooth - Implants are not just for one tooth but can be placed as strong pillars when you need all the teeth in your mouth or all the teeth on one side replaced.
- Front teeth - A lost front tooth is not at all aesthetic. It would always be noticeable in your smile. Implants can offer an aesthetic replacement for such cases.
Types of Implants and what cases they are used in -
Dental implants can be of different types based on what way they are used in, what level of bone they are placed in and how the treatment plan is.
- Endosteal implant -
These are the most common types of implants. These are placed directly in the bone, in cases of a single missing tooth where the bone structure is good. These also go well with cases where a bone graft might be needed to improve the bone structure. This is because they are made of titanium and have tiny screws which join with the bone well.
These can be used to replace one single tooth, or can be placed as pillars on which a dental bridge of 3 might be placed.
- Subperiosteal implant
This is for the patients who do not have enough bone density. These implants are placed a bit superficially when compared to endosteal implants. They are still placed in the bone, below the gums. These implants might require a metal framework to restore the biting strength. These are also good for multiple tooth loss cases.
- Zygomatic implants
These are suggested in cases where you do not have enough bone density on your upper jaw. These implants are longer and their base will be in the zygoma or the cheek bones. They are planned in such a way to have a complete tooth set rest on them. Ideally suggested for full mouth rehabilitation cases.
- Implant supported dentures
In cases where both your upper and lower jaw bone density is very less, mostly experienced in older patients, we suggest getting a fixed complete teeth set. If placed directly on the bone without any implant support, chances are the set keeps falling off. Hence we place 4 or 6 implants into the lower jaw as pillars and then place the denture set on top of this. Similar for the upper jaw.
