How Can Dental Implants Help Me? Part One

In Part One of this blog Dr Monder Zbaeda, principal dentist at Barrington Dental Care in Altrincham, gives you advice on Dental Implants and how they could help you.

Having a full complement of healthy teeth means you can eat properly, you will smile fully and generally feel much better about yourself than if you have teeth missing.

Teeth can be missing for all sorts of reasons

• Tooth decay
• Gum disease
• Trauma – accidents or injury
• Missing from birth – more common than would think
• Mouth cancers

How do I find out if dental implants are for me?

Firstly we will assess the whole of your mouth, your gums, your bone and the general health of remaining teeth. When considering replacing a dental implant it is imperative that the implant is placed into healthy bone and the teeth around have some longevity and are not battling with gum disease or tooth decay.

If gum disease is present or tooth decay this is not a contra indication to treatment but it is an indication that other treatment will be required first. This may involve:

• Visits to our Dental Hygienist
• Reparative work to decayed teeth

Will I need X-rays?

Yes, to assess the bone support and the health of your teeth and gums we will need to take X-rays and we are extremely fortunate at Barrington Dental care to have a CT Scanner in the practice, one of very few in the Altrincham area. This scanner allows us to view a 3D image of your jaws and mouth, not only being able to assess the health of the tissues accurately but also being helpful when planning the surgery and where we place the dental implants.

What are the timescales?

Once we have agreed the treatment plan, what reparative work you may require and preventive advice, we will need to ensure this treatment is completed fully before commencing the implants and there may be a short period to wait for healing. This is sometimes necessary if any extractions are required to allow some bone regeneration, although we can also help this along by bulking out the bone with artificial substitutes.

After this stage we will plan the implants we are going to place, how many, what sixe and we will accurately place them according to our 3D picture we acquire from our CT scanner. Correct placement is one of the key areas to success with dental implants and time spent in the planning is time well spent so don’t be concerned if Monder takes more than one visit for this purpose. We may also take impressions of your mouth and construct models to aid us in this stage.

What type of dental implants do you use and how long does the surgery take?

The Dental Implant team at Barrington Dental Care will discuss the different type of implants with you but will usually decide on the type according to

• How many are required
• Position and type of loading required
• The depth of bone available

Placing the actual dental implants doesn’t take that long once full preparation has been completed. You will attend for a surgical style appointment and will be in the dental chair for a similar length of time to complete a more complex filling or crown preparation. The procedure is entirely pain free and carried out with good anaesthesia. Some of our patients, though, prefer to have this treatment completed with some sedation.

What is sedation?

Sedation or specifically, intravenous sedation is when we administer some medication into a vein in your arm or hand to help you relax. You do not go to sleep as you would with a General Anaesthetic but are relaxed, comfortable and co-operative. The medication means you have no concept of time either so this is very useful if a procedure is going to take longer than usual and you are a little anxious. Our team will discuss this treatment further with you at the planning process so you can decide if this is for you. It is worth remembering that if you have sedation you will need to be escorted home and we would advise that you do not drive or work for the next 24-48 hrs following your surgery.

How will I look once I leave the practice after my surgery?

Once the dental implants have been placed under your gum the gum will be stitched together and you will not see the implants until there are uncovered at the next stage. Depending on where the implants are placed you may leave with the same gap as before or we may have made an interim restoration to fill the gap – usual if the implants are placed at the front of your mouth. This interim restoration may be a temporary bridge or it may be a temporary denture.

To find out what happens next, read our next blog…