2 Teeth Replacement Options That Use Dental Implants

Posted on: 8 February 2017

If you need to have a large number of teeth replaced, there are multiple dental options available to restore your mouth. Many of these options include the use of a dental implant.

A dental implant is a specialized dental device that is surgically positioned in your jawbone to take the place of a natural tooth root. The implant is stabilized in the bone through osseointegration, a healing process that results in the fusing of the jawbone with the implant.

Here are a few teeth-replacement options in which dental implants are commonly used:

A Full-mouth Implant Restoration

Dental implants can be used to replace a large number of teeth. The restoration would actually consist of a large number of single-tooth restorations.  Basically, a dental implant, abutment and crown would need to be installed for each missing tooth.

Once the restoration is complete, the replacement teeth not only look natural, but they also offer some of the benefits of natural teeth. Natural teeth help stimulate the bone of the jaw so that it can continue to produce large numbers of bone cells and avoid a loss of bone density. The stimulation occurs when you bite or chew due to the transfer of the bite pressure from the roots of the teeth to the jawbone. Since dental implants are located with the jawbone also, the bone stimulation continues after the implants are placed.

The whiteness of your teeth after a full-mouth restoration would be determined by the crown color selected. Since the crowns used would typically be made from porcelain or porcelain-over-metal, the brightest shade of white would result in a whiter color than normal tooth material could attain.

An implant-supported Dental Application

There are multiple dental applications that can replace lare numbers of teeth and are held in place by dental implants. Here are a few of them:

  • Fixed Dental Bridges- The bridge crowns can be affixed to the dental implants to hold the bridge in position.
  • Implant-supported Dentures- Dentures are sometimes designed with mechanisms on their underside to allow them to attach and detach to supporting dental implants. The devices would still be removable by the patient, but they would remain stable inside the mouth when the dentures are attached to the underlying implants.
  • All-on-fours- These teeth-replacement devices involve permanent connection of a dental arch to four strategically placed dental implants using screws.

For more information about dental implants and how they can be used to replace a large number of missing teeth, schedule an appointment with a dentist in your area, such as George N. Bryan Jr, DDS, PA.

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