What is a Dental Implant?

When teeth are lost in the chewing system, bad things happen. The most obvious problems with missing teeth are lack of chewing forces and loss of esthetics. Other problems that arise but are often overlooked until its too late are; drifting of adjacent teeth into the missing space, loss of bone in a horizontal and vertical dimension, and a change in bite patterns- to just name a few.

The dental implant is a great way to replace these missing teeth. There are many types of dental implants; blades, root form, subperiosteal, mini’s,etc. The most common are root form implants that mimic the roots of teeth. The dental implant is made up of two parts; 1. the titanium screw that goes into the bone for support and 2. the abutment which is top part that supports the Crown. In our office we do both of these steps making the process easy for you.

This patient had two teeth that were missing and wanted to restore her smile. After studying her New Tom Scan(3d image) we found that she had lost a significant amount of bone over the years due to her missing teeth. We elevated the sinus to provide enough bone to place two implants. All this was done with local anesthesia and minimal discomfort. The digital x-ray shows how the sinus was elevated with the abutments in place (no crowns). The final picture shows the finished crowns and the nice tissue surrounding the implants.

1. Lorretta Conces
   4:48 pm on April 2nd, 2011

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2. admin
   4:01 pm on April 12th, 2011

   Thanks for letting us know. We are glad it was helpful.