At Smile Care Dental Clinic, we get a lot of questions about dental implants Leicester. So it seemed only right to put together this short guide to give people the basics of what we do and how we can help them.
Our dental implants Leicester are a great solution to missing teeth; they allow individual teeth (usually one of the front ones and therefore most noticeable) to be seamlessly replaced with a prosthetic mounted on a titanium peg, extending from the gum line into the jaw and acting as an artificial root. This is a big step forwards compared to most restorative dentistry that requires some part of the tooth to remain and be healthy to build up from; in the case of a standard crown, that would be the root. By being independent of any remaining healthy tooth, there is a great deal of flexibility that comes along with implants, making it possible to replace teeth that have been lost decades ago and whose sockets have long since closed.
The implantation session
The surgical steps in installing an implant or an immobilised oral prosthetic are broken up over two sessions. This allows the titanium implant to be placed inside the jawbone but remain concealed in the gum tissue just beneath the gum line.
During this period, the implant will be supported by the surrounding gum tissue as new bone slowly grows around it, and it is permanently fused into the jawbone. Referred to as osseointegration, it is the biological process that makes dental implantation possible and why titanium is so common throughout bone-related surgery.
It can take 4 to 12 months for an implant to become fully integrated. The wide variety in recovery time is heavily dependent on the patient’s health, lifestyle, genetic factors and the underlying rate at which new bone is laid down.
The loading session
After an x-ray to confirm that the implants are secure and straight, they can be loaded. The gum, which will have fully healed by this point, will be reopened so that the prosthetic tooth (similar in appearance to a crown) can be attached to its artificial root via a locking mechanism referred to as a connector. The connector will keep the implant together during everyday wear and tear, but if the prosthetic is damaged, it can be unlocked by our dentist for maintenance or replacement.
Complications
Any patient’s treatment pathway with dental implants Leicester will vary and their medical history prescriptions or underlying conditions will have to be taken into account by our team. There are very few issues that will disclude implantation completely, but success rates may be lower with conditions like osteoporosis or if the patient is undergoing chemotherapy.
There are several conditions affecting blood clotting that will make any form of the surgery challenging, like haemophilia or Von Willebrand disease. With the majority of patients, only minor alterations to the implant locations or angle at which it is placed into the jaw are required to maximise success in such cases.
If you think you or a family member could be a good candidate, please feel free to get in contact with our surgery for further information.