Dental Implants Can Restore your Smile. And your teeth!

When you lose a tooth, dental implants can make your mouth look and feel wonderful. Dental implants are a small metal artificial tooth root, permanently placed in your jawbone, that replaces the root of your natural tooth. It is fixed into your jawbone, bonds to your bone, and creates a very strong foundation on which to mount an artificial replacement tooth (commonly known as a crown). Its purpose is to hold the replacement tooth firmly in place, giving it full functionality and aesthetics. Once the artificial root (the dental implant) is safely inserted into the jawbone, dental implants look, feel, and function just like natural teeth.

Dental implants generally have a high success rate. With proper care and regular visits to your periodontist and dental professional, they can last a lifetime.

First, while most dentists restore the crown on a Dental Implant, most do not place the dental implant fixture in the jaw bone.  Periodontists are dental specialists who spend a significant amount of time during their surgical training completed during their specialty training, a skill set not refined during general dental training. Surgical care is a skill periodontists learn during their surgical training residency and refine during daily surgical treatments.

Secondly, dental implants often require additional bone to facilitate the placement of the correct size and position of the dental implant. This requires significant skill to properly diagnose pre-surgically and completely predictably during the surgical phase of treatment.  Without adequate bone, often the only choice is to place a smaller dental implant which may not be adequate to manage the load of the crown that will be placed on it.

Thirdly, the greatest risk for a dental implant over your life will be the risk for the development of peri-implant bone loss.  Because this problem is generally managed in the periodontal clinic, periodontists are in a unique position during the planning and surgical phases of treatment to place the dental implant when and where the risk for this complication is reduced.

We invite you to consider a periodontist as part of your oral health care team when dental implants are needed.  We will work with your general dentist, and a referral is not necessary.