Why dental implants are often the best way to replace missing teeth

By choosing dental implants to replace your missing teeth, you choose so much more than just a beautiful smile. With implants your dentist can replace the roots of lost teeth, which helps not only to hold a crown, bridge, or denture in place, but also preserves the health of your jaw bone.

A shrinking jaw bone is a common but seldom talked about side effect of losing your teeth. It happens because when the roots of the teeth are missing the jaw bone starts to resorb. This can make future placement of dental implants more complex, can cause traditional dentures to lose their snug fit, and can change the appearance of your whole face, making you look old before your time.

Because dental implants are titanium tooth roots, they stop these problems. At South Benfleet Dental Care our skilled implantology team are able to help even those patients who have already experienced some degree of bone loss to regain their freedom with dental implants. An additional procedure – either a bone graft or sinus lift – to rebuild bone density may just be needed first.

Whatever type of tooth restoration is used to replace the crown portions of your teeth, your implants will hold them firmly in place. A crown (used to replace a single tooth) or a bridge (used to replace anything from two to all the teeth in one jaw) attached to dental implants is meant to stay in your mouth permanently. In the case of implant-retained dentures, they can either be permanently fixed in place or can be removable in the same way as their traditional cousins.

At South Benfleet Dental Care, dental implants can be placed under local anaesthetic or conscious sedation. This requires minor oral surgery, but many past patients have reported it as being more comfortable than having a tooth extraction.

Once your implants are in position, they will be left to heal and integrate with your jaw bone for a few months. Temporary teeth are often fitted for the duration of healing. Once full integration has taken place, your permanent new teeth will be attached.