Have you been told you can’t have dental implants in Richmond?
Whether or not you are a suitable candidate for dental implants in Richmond depends very much on the state of your jawbone. The pressures created during biting and chewing are very powerful, up to 97kg or 200lbs. You will know how powerful the jaws can be if you have ever accidentally bitten your tongue or the inside of your cheek.
The teeth are held in place by fibres that link them to the surrounding bone. Dental implants are held in place by the new bone tissue that grows tightly around them. But, like putting a screw into too thin plasterboard and then hanging a heavy mirror on it, you have to be sure there is enough strong, dense jawbone there to accommodate the implants.
People who have been missing teeth for a while, have suffered with advanced gum disease or have been long-term smokers often do not have enough bone material to support dental implants. In Richmond, at Sheen Dental Implants, we offer various treatments that can help solve this problem and give people access to the gold standard of tooth replacement.
Bone grafts
We take bone from elsewhere in your body, or use synthetic bone crystals, and put them into the area of the jaw where the implants are going. We either do this before or during implant surgery. Over time, the new bone material will mesh seamlessly with the bone already present and provide a firm base for the implants. In the upper jaw, we put the grafts into the sinus cavity, and this is called a sinus graft.
Bone expansion
The jaw shrinks when it no longer has tooth roots in it to stimulate bone cell renewal. If it is too thin to support dental implants, we can expand it carefully with a series of instruments, before filling the hole with bone graft material and putting in an implant.
If you have been told your jawbone can’t take dental implants, come and have a consultation. Times move on and what was once impossible might now be possible. If you are a smoker, you will need to quit before we can treat you.