Dental Implants Years After Extraction

Dental Implants Years After Extraction?

Dental implants are a popular solution for many people who are seeking to replace one or more missing teeth and provide a natural-looking and natural-feeling option that functions just like a natural tooth. One of the reasons they’re so popular is that they’re designed to last a lifetime, and part of this durability is innate to the dental implant procedure itself. During dental implant treatment, a tiny titanium post is implanted into the jawbone and then given several months to heal. As the bone heals around the implant post, it fuses to the biocompatible material of the implant post. The post stimulates the growth and maintenance of healthy bone just like the root of a natural tooth would, and, just like a natural tooth, the implant post is used to support a dental crown. Sometimes, dentists can use dental implants to support bridges or partial or complete dentures, and sometimes, as few as two or four dental implants can be used to support an entire row of teeth.

If you lost one or more teeth several years ago, you may wonder if you can still be a good candidate for dental implants. The potential viability of dental implants isn’t directly affected by the number of years that the teeth have been missing. Instead, it’s affected by the density and health of the bone, which is related to the health of the oral cavity in general. If a patient has gum disease that accompanies missing teeth, the first step is to treat the gum disease. This involves deep cleaning the roots of any remaining teeth, removing bacteria and diseased tissue from below the gum line and resurfacing tooth roots so that the gum tissue can become less inflamed and more secure around the teeth. Your dentist will also take dental x-rays to ascertain the amount of healthy bone that remains in the jaw. Losing teeth causes the bone in the jaw to deplete and be reabsorbed into the body, as bone tissue is stimulated by the forces of chewing and biting; when there is no tooth root present, the bone is not stimulated in that area. This may mean that a person who has had missing teeth for several years has less healthy bone tissue, which is likely. While general dentists can sometimes perform simple dental implant procedures, if you have depleted bone density, you should work with a skilled oral surgeon for your implants.

Even if you have less viable bone, you may still be a good candidate for dental implants, thanks to bone graft treatment and other tissue-regeneration therapies. If your gum disease is managed and you are in good health overall, your oral surgeon can place a small amount of natural or artificial bone into your jaw to encourage the growth of additional bone. They may also use a procedure called guided-tissue regeneration, which involves using a tiny piece of surgical mesh to encourage gum tissue to stay out of the cavity while the bone grows. Once the bone grafts have healed and the bone is sufficiently strong, dental implants can be placed. The permanent crowns or other dental restoration can’t be placed until the implants have fully healed, and the overall healing time for a treatment that includes bone grafts could be as long as a year, with several months of healing for each of the procedures. Once they are placed, however, dental implants can be cared for just like the natural teeth, and, with proper care, the implants could last a lifetime. For most people, dental implants are worth the wait.