The Many Reasons Dental Implants Are So Effective

After centuries of development dental implants are among one of the most advanced, and yet one of the most simplistic, surgical prosthetic devices that you can have installed. Today's implants are designed and built so that they can act as an anchor for a new fake tooth that looks, feels, and behaves like a natural tooth. Our primary focus has been in integrating these dental implants with your jawbone in such a way that the body believes the implant to be natural and accepts it. Done properly, as we do them, the tissue around the implant will interact with the implant and even grow around it so that it is strong, secure, and cohesive.  To aid in this endeavor, we have a number of different surfaces that are used on the implants including acid-etched implants, grit-blasted implants, plasma-sprayed implants, and hydroxyapatite-coated implants.

Dental implants that are coated with hydroxyapatite integrate with the bone far more easily. This is because hydroxyapatite is a naturally occurring substance that is found in human bones. Essentially the body is tricked into believing that that dental implant is an integral part of the bone and treats it as such. When combined with the natural tendency of titanium to meld with human tissue in such a way that the bone grows around it, the implant becomes very durable. This is one of the major reasons why we have made such great progress in integrating dental implants with the jawbone. Titanium has a number of qualities other than osseointegration that has made it a perfect metal from which to fabricate dental implants. Titanium is strong but light, and also is resistant to corrosion, which is critical to having a successful device. There are a number of different kinds of implants, designed for different needs and mostly dependent on the amount of bone mass you have available.

The most commonly used dental implant is called a root-form implant or endosseous implant. These types of implants are placed directly into the bone, under the gum surface where we expect to place the crown or other false tooth. These implants are formed in the shape of a cone. Typically they are a screw or a nail so that it is easier to place them into the bone. The jawbone then provides a level of security and stability for the implant. A root-form implant requires a decent among of bone density.

At times, and with some patients, we simply do not have a bone that is dense enough or strong enough to withstand a root-form implant surgery. In cases like this we would use a different type of implant, known as a Ramus frame implant. A Ramus frame implant is attached at a distance from the tooth, around the wisdom teeth and chin. A thin metal bar is left, exposed between the two screws, to which we can attach a bridge or dentures. This dental implant has a lot more stability than dentures and serves to strengthen the jaw, especially in cases where there is a risk of the jaw fracturing.