Dental implants: a brief guide
Using dental implants, a dentist can permanently replace missing teeth. Sheen Dental Implants in Richmond offers a number of implant-based solutions to tooth loss, whether you have lost one tooth through an accident or you have none of your natural teeth left.
Dental implants are designed to be a permanent method of restoring not just a pleasing aesthetic appearance, but also a fully functional jaw, alleviating or avoiding entirely some of the common problems experienced by people who wear traditional dentures.
The dental implant work at our Richmond practice is carried out by Dr Harmit Kalsi, a highly experienced implant dentist capable of treating anything from simple to complex cases. He has been providing treatment with dental implants since the very early days, beginning in 1991, and has placed more than 1,000 dental implants during that time.
Implants replace the root portions of one or more missing teeth. This has two key benefits:
- New teeth – which can be a single crown, a bridge, or dentures – are hold securely in place at all times
- The health and density of the jaw bone is preserved.
In most patients who experience problems with the fit of their traditional dentures, it is a loss of bone density that is to blame. When tooth roots are missing for any significant period, the jaw bone starts to resorb. As well as making dentures loose and difficult to use, this can also cause a prematurely aged appearance by changing the structure of the face.
At our Richmond dental centre we can place dental implants under either local anaesthetic or conscious sedation. Most people are able to return to regular activities the following day, although patients who have had sedation will need someone to look after them until the sedatives leave their system.
Osseointegration – which sees the dental implants mesh with the bone – takes between three and nine months to complete, during which time you may have temporary teeth fitted or may be able to wear your old dentures.
After healing is complete you will be called back to our Richmond dental practice for your dentist to attach permanent new teeth.