Losing your tooth: Keeping your dignity!

Improve your Smile after Losing a Tooth

Losing a tooth can cause you huge embarrassment, but unlike other methods of replacing teeth, dental implant treatment most closely maintains your dental structures in a healthy state while restoring your appearance and function.

The provision of bridges and, to a less degree, even dentures can indirectly cause further damage to your remaining teeth, oral soft tissues and supporting bone.  The only benefit of these two options (bridge or denture) is that they restore appearance and function.  The major problem is the damage that is inflicted on the teeth when providing a bridge and the longer term damage inflicted on the bone and soft tissues when a denture is worn.

From the moment of losing a tooth, the bone that was present starts to disappear; a process called “disuse atrophy”.  With loss of the bone, there is recession of the gum that often affects the adjacent teeth and the reduction in the volume and height of bone may make the later provision of an implant at the site, impossible without further bone grafting surgery.  The message is simple, do it right the first time and save extra surgery and additional costs in the long run with a dental implant!

Dental Implants at NQ Surgical Dentistry

A dental implant is a titanium screw that is placed into the jaw to serve as a replacement root.  This then supports a replacement tooth (either a crown or bridge) that may either be screwed or cemented onto the implant.  This form of tooth replacement has fast become the most popular dental treatment for permanently replacing missing teeth.

Dental implants may be made of pure titanium or more recently a titanium alloy; we use only pure type 4 commercial grade titanium which is inert (biocompatible) and will not produce a foreign body reaction. There has been extensive research data to back up the safety of titanium implants for dental surgery. Once the implant has been placed into the jaw below the gum line, it can take between 2 and 6 months to ossteointegrate (fuse) with the bone.  Once this process, known as has taken place, the implant may then be restored with a prosthetic tooth, such as a crown or bridge.

Why You Should Replace Missing Teeth

Losing a tooth or teeth can affect more than just your smile!  Missing teeth can lead to bone loss and gum recession around adjacent teeth and the space may allow the teeth next to the space to move. This can leave you with a poor appearance including uneven teeth that are more difficult to clean effectively and can cause added pressure to be placed on your teeth when chewing and speaking.

Crooked teeth, missing teeth and loss of bone can lead to a number of other dental problems including:

• Difficulty chewing
• Teeth that interfere with the normal movement of teeth during function and resulting problems with your temporomandibular joints (jaw joints) and muscles of mastication (chewing muscles)
• Gum disease
• Gum recession and hence poor appearance
• Additional bone loss of adjacent teeth and the development of mobility of those teeth
• Losing more teeth
• Difficulty speaking clearly (phonation)

With dental implant treatment you can restore appearance, form and function and importantly you can regain your smile and help prevent other dental health issues associated with missing teeth. With advances in technology, implant dentistry is not just about replacing teeth, it is also about looking after the hard and soft tissues with new and innovative techniques.

Who’s a Suitable Candidate for Dental Implants?

A perfect candidate for dental implants is someone with adequate jawbone density, good oral and overall health. However, even patients with inadequate bone can still receive implants after some preparatory stages to improve the available bone in the implant site.  If you are missing teeth and suffer from gum disease, we will first need to treat your gum disease before we begin your implant treatment (because this could reduce the changes of successful ossteointegration), however, once your gum health is restored, you can proceed with implant therapy.

We have all the most advanced diagnostic and surgical equipment available today to ensure your dental implant treatment with us is precise and effective.  We use Cone Beam CT scans for assessment and planning for all implant surgery, we can place implants in several ways including computer-guided surgery for the most complex cases and following implant osseointegration we assess the stability of all implants placed using the most advanced Resonance Frequency Analysis technique.  If you like the sound of what implants may be able to do for you, and you want to discuss your options with us, please call us of fill in an enquiry via the website.

contact the friendly team at NQ Surgical Dentistry today on (07) 4725 1656 or call in to see us at 183 Kings Rd, Pimlico QLD 4812