Dental Implants

 

Single Tooth Implant

One implant or two implants may be used to replaces single missing tooth.

The implant may be placed long after the tooth is extracted or may be placed immediately after extraction. The cap / tooth / crown may be placed after a few months of the implant placement surgery allowing it to integrate with the bone. (osseointegration). With the advancements of the implant designs newer implants allow placement of the crown over the implants immediately after surgery, provided that the conditions are suitable to do so.

Since placement of implants requires adequate amount of bone in the jaw site chosen for implant placement, in cases where the bone is not adequate for implant placement, bone conditioning (bone augmentation) may be required by a means of separate surgery or at the time of placement of the implant itself.




 

Multiple Teeth Implants

In situation where multiple adjacent teeth are missing their replacement with implants can be done by:

1. One implant for each missing tooth as single tooth implants. or,
2. A bridge may be placed over a few implants like it is done in natural teeth: in this scenario less number of implants can be an option to replace multiple teeth. The number of implants to be placed is decided by the implantologist after evaluation, as mentioned earlier.

 

Dental Implants to support Dentures / Implant Supported Dentures

Patients who already have full mouth dentures / full jaw dentures and facing the problems with denture instability and movement of the denture while talking and eating , can take advantage of the dental implant procedures to enhance the support and stability of the existing dentures.

In these situations the dental implants placed in the bone with special components placed over the implants and their counterpart components in the dentures, provide a means of anchoring the denture to the jaw bone, in turn enhancing the support and stability of the denture, and making the existing denture more comfortable.

 

Full Mouth / Arch / Jaw rehabilitation with Implants

Implants in todays time have become an accepted and a predictable modality to replace all the missing teeth in one or both the jaws as per the clinical situation.

Different techniques may be used to replace depending on the number of implants decided to replace the teeth as per the availability of bone like:

• All-on-4™ (4 implants for replacing all the teeth)
• All- on 6 (implants for replacing all the teeth)
• 8-10 implants for replacing all the teeth.

The set of teeth placed on the implants may be cemented n the implants or placed with screws, which offers the ease of removing the whole set of teeth from the implants for future maintenance.