Dental Implants 2018-06-15T10:44:00+00:00

Dental Implants

Dental Implants are titanium replacement roots used to support a crown, a bridge or a denture. Titanium has a wonderful property which is that it can fuse to jaw bone and form a base for replacement teeth. The implant (root) is attached to a customised precision engineered metal post (abutment) and covered with a replacement tooth (crown). Titanium is very well tolerated by bone and in over 95% of cases osseo-integrates (fuses) with the bone tissue. They are very robust and have a long life expectancy.

There are many implant systems on the market but at Rathfarnham Dental Practice we only recommend those with a long researched track record which should have maintenance support for years to come.

Planning the placement of implants often requires extra xrays or a CT scan. It is extremely important that the whole mouth is free of dental disease and that smoking is stopped or minimised.

If an area does not have good enough bone to hold an implant, grafting material or a graft from somewhere else in the mouth is placed first and allowed to heal for sometimes as long as nine months.

Bone is lost when a tooth is taken out. Unlike in years gone by we now try and preserve bone and prevent the jaws from shrinking. There are procedures for this even if implants are not to be placed immediately.

Each implant is placed into a socket carefully drilled at the precisely planned location. In some cases a crown can be placed immediately but more often the implant needs to be left to osseo-integrate over at least two months. For front teeth a temporary denture or temporary bridge is made to fill the space of the missing tooth or teeth.

Treatment Options

Implant bridgeThere are many treatment options depending on how many teeth are missing and where from. For example a single tooth can be replaced with one implant.

  • Two implants can support three or four teeth on a bridge.
  • People with loose lower dentures can benefit enormously from having 2-3 implants placed that a denture can be fastened to.
  • Multiple implants can be placed to replace all the teeth if necessary. There are many other options because no two people are alike.

It is still very important afterwards to keep the implants clean and have regular checks and hygienist visits because like teeth, gums around implants can recede if plaque builds up.

Images courtesy of Straumann