Can Dental Implants Benefit you?
Definitely! A dental implant is actually a “root device”, which is used to support restorations to replace a missing tooth or group of teeth. Dental implants can be called as ‘bread and butter’ of Prosthodontists. Prosthodontists are dentists which specialize in replacing tooth with a dental implant which is basically made up of titanium. The titanium post is preferred in dental implants and they fuse with the surrounding bone. This process is known as Osseo integration. They appear to be very similar to natural teeth and are also comfortable. Many of the patients might feel slightly different than natural teeth during chewing as periodontal ligament (PDL) does not exist in between dental implant and bone.
You might be thinking that what are the other components of a dental implant which make it so comfortable? The structure of a typical implant is a titanium screw with a smooth or toughened surface. In the recent times grade 5 Titanium is used which is made up of 6% Aluminum and 4% Vanadium. Despite of this most of the implants are done using those of grades 1 to 4 in the recent times. Implant surface most of the times need to be smoothened by anodizing, plasma spraying, etching or sand blasting. These techniques also help in improving osseointegration potential of the implant.
Dental implant success depends on the skills of the operator, condition of the patient which includes quantity of bone present at the site where implant has to be fixed and oral hygiene of the patient. According to the consensus, 75% of the dental implants done achieve success. Therefore, achievement and thereby maintenance of implants fixed is one of the most important factors which determine implant success. A dentist lets his patient know about this value in the form of Implant Stability Quotient (ISQ).
The surgical timings of the dental implantations are not very long so that patients are not stressed by the duration. It varies and is as follows:
- Immediate implant placement after extraction
- Delayed immediate implant after extraction which lies under a duration of 2 weeks to 3 months after extraction.
- Late implantation which has a duration of 3 months or more after extraction depending on the comfort of the patient and decision of the dentist.
The loading procedure of the implants also varies accordingly as per the above mentioned duration of surgical timings of dental implantations. In this way, you can see that dental implants are comfortable and useful and provide good aesthetic to your oral cavity.
