Dental Implants

Dental Implants: What You Should Know

May 1, 2023

Dental implants represent tooth replacement devices surgically embedded in your jaw to restore your chewing ability and aesthetics. Implants support artificial teeth, such as dental crowns, bridges, and dentures.

Missing teeth due to infections or injuries can make you to experience complications like jawbone deterioration, speech impairment, and changes in chewing patterns resulting in discomfort and indigestion. Replacing the missing tooth or teeth with a dental implant can significantly enhance your quality of life and health.

The dental implant system contains a titanium body and an implant abutment, including an abutment fixation screw. The dental implant titanium post is surgically embedded in the jaw to replace the missing tooth’s root. The abutment is attached to the implant with help from the abutment fixation screw extending through the gums in the mouth to support the attached artificial teeth.

Patient Recommendations

Before considering dental implants, it helps to discuss the potential benefits and risks of dental implants with the dentist near me to determine your eligibility for the procedure. The factors you must consider include the following:

  • Your overall health determines whether you are eligible for dental implants, how much time you need to heal, and how long the implant will remain in your mouth.
  • You must ask your dentist about the brand and model of the implant system they recommend and maintain the information in your records.
  • Smoking affects the healing process and the long-term success of dental implant placement.
  • The healing process from the surgical procedure is lengthy, needing several months, during which the dentist provides a temporary abutment in place of the missing tooth.

Following dental implant placement, you must carefully adhere to the dental hygiene instructions provided by the dentist by regularly cleaning them and the surrounding teeth to help in the long-term success of the implant.

Scheduling regular visits with the dentist is also a requirement.

Contact the provider immediately if the implanted titanium post feels loose or painful.

Benefits and Risks of Dental Implants

Dental implants significantly improve your quality of life and health if you have missing teeth. However, complications can occur soon after dental implant placement or later. For example, some complications can result in implant failure if the titanium post is incorrectly placed. Implant failure requires another surgical intervention to fix or replace the titanium post.

Dental Implant Benefits

Dental implants help restore your chewing ability and aesthetic appearance. They help prevent jawbone deterioration to preserve the health of the surrounding bone and gums. Implants help keep the neighboring teeth stable and, most importantly, improve your quality of life.

Dental Implant Associated Risks

Dental implants can damage the surrounding natural teeth during implant placement. As a result, you may sustain injuries to the surrounding tissues during the surgical procedure resulting in sinus perforation and experiencing a sensation of loose teeth twisting in place resulting from the abutment screw loosening.

The implant body can fail due to systemic infections like uncontrolled diabetes, local conditions in the bone and gums supporting the implant and delayed healing, especially if you smoke. If you have untreated, periodontal disease, it can result in implant failure. Postsurgical numbness because of damage or impingement of the nerve can also result in implant failure.

If you experience any complications after dental impact placement, you must notify the provider to ensure they take corrective measures.

Methods Used to Evaluate Dental Implants for Safety

The dentist in Annapolis, MD, provides dental implants manufactured from biocompatible titanium or zirconium oxide, although other materials such as gold alloys, titanium alloys and ceramic materials are also used. However, the safety of the other materials is not authenticated by the FDA.

Dental implants are evaluated using the international consensus standards of biocompatibility testing to ensure bodily contact with the implant does not result in complications like irritation or allergic reactions as part of the evaluation to confirm dental implants are safe and do not cause adverse effects after placement in the jawbone. Therefore, manufacturers of dental implants in America must authenticate their dental implants by the FDA for safety.

If you decide to replace your missing teeth from the Annapolis provider, you can rest assured you can report any adversity with the placement and the implant system to the FDA, especially if you observe problems with the titanium post, the abutment, and the abutment screw. In addition, you can provide all details of the implant procedure, including the description of the issue and the entire implantation procedure, with your medical and dental history.

Dental implants are presently considered the gold standard for replacing missing teeth. If you can get your implants from an experienced provider like the Annapolis dentist, you can rest assured your quality of life and mouth functionality, besides aesthetics, will improve for the better of life.

Guard Your Smile Dentistry recommends patients know about dental implants before they consider getting them to replace their missing teeth. If you need implants to replace your missing teeth, kindly contact them to get them placed after learning everything you must know about the restoration.

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