Category: Dental Implants

So what does Implant Friday mean?

It simply means that today is a day that we’ve reserved exclusively for dental implants to be placed on a patient. It’s a complex procedure and requires many weeks of careful planning and organising. Todays dental implant case is the placement of two implants in the lower jaw, to be restored with a three tooth bridge.

What will be happening today for the dental implant patient?

There are four stages to placing a dental implant. Consultation, surgery (to place the implant, which replaces the root of the tooth), healing and then finally the crown (the part that replaces the tooth) fitting. Todays patient has been through the consultation period with our treatment co-ordinators before having detailed examinations, investigations and further consultations with our Implant dentist. All this makes sure that a dental implant is right for the patient. With this being completed, today’s time will be spent in surgery placing the implant. We use the Straumann system for implants which is the leading producer of dental implants, for more information on Straumann, click here

What is the next stage for this patient after today’s placing of the implant?

Once placed, a period of time will be needed for the healing process to occur (which is simply amazing how the human body heals around the dental implant, we’ll cover this in another post as its fairly detailed). Osseointegration must occur first. This is the process of the jawbone fusing with the titanium implant root. Titanium is the metal of choice when it comes to dental implants due to its natural properties which offer a high success rate with osseointegration.

After a period of time and subject to our dentist being happy with the healing around the placed implant the patient would move on the crown fitting stage. This is the most exciting part, in the background we have instructed one of the leading dental laboratories in the country to produce a bespoke fully customised crown. The crown is a one off and designed for only you. Due to this customisation of the crown it will comfortably and seamlessly into the gap left by the missing tooth. The crown will be colour matched to your existing teeth colour making it look natural and almost unrecognisable from the other teeth. With all this in place your beautiful new smile has just been created and ready to be enjoyed for years to come.

Fun Fact

Although we use titanium dental implants today to which it is still a relatively new concept, the practice of replacing missing teeth has actually been around for thousands of year. Archeologists have found that some ancient Chinese civilisations embedded carved bamboo pegs into their mouths as a replacement for missing teeth.

Wanting to know more about dental implants?

If you having missing teeth and would like to know more about the implants we can offer, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Or if you feel you’re not at that stage right now, and would like to read up a little, more our implant section has further information for you.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!