Getting Started on Your Dental Implant Journey at Choice Dental
In this episode of Choice Dental, Dr. Charlie Sung discusses the many benefits of dental implants, highlighting how they offer a comfortable and secure solution for replacing missing teeth. He emphasizes the lifelike appearance, oral health improvements, and the process of getting started with dental implants.
What You’ll Learn:
- What dental implants are and how they provide comfort and confidence to those with missing teeth
- How dental implants are fixed securely in the jawbone, offering a natural feel and appearance
- When you should consult with your dentist, including the initial consultation and potential need for bone grafting
Dr. Charlie Sung:
Hi everyone, it’s Dr. Charlie Sung from Choice Dental and today we’re going to talk about the benefits of dental implants. So like there’s many benefits to dental implants, so we’ll go through them one by one. The main benefit is that it replaces missing teeth in the most comfortable and secure way. So it does this because the dental implant is a tooth that’s
fixed into your jaw bone. So that means that the new fake tooth doesn’t move. It’s fixed into your jaw bone so it basically feels exactly like your natural teeth once the procedure is complete. And you can eat with it comfortably without worrying about the fake tooth moving or jiggling. Clean it in a very similar or nearly identical way as your regular teeth. There’s no sort of like taking it in and out kind of situation like you do have with dentures. And so dental implants is considered the gold standard way of replacing missing teeth and because it’s just so comfortable once the tooth is in your mouth.
The other benefit to dental implants is that the fake tooth will be made from porcelain. So compared to dentures where the fake tooth is actually made from like a plastic style of material. So because the dental implant, the tooth is a porcelain tooth. It looks the most lifelike. It looks, it’s got a nice sheen and gloss to it. It’s very strong. It’s got like that kind of
depth of ceramic which sort of is very similar to how a tooth looks. It’s got that kind of like a depth and complexity in that colour so to make it look lifelike. This is compared to a plastic denture tooth which is just very sort of like one dimensional and kind of a little bit just maybe fake looking you could say. So definitely when the tooth is made from a ceramic.
Material it can that’s the secret to making teeth look lifelike and dental implants The tooth that sits on top of the implant is a ceramic material So another question that I get asked a lot is how implants can enhance the oral health and appearance So yeah with we’ve kind of covered it already, but the appearance like The implant will fill in any missing gaps, so gaps can be quite, you know, some people might consider them quite unsightly. So filling in missing gaps in your smile just kind of makes like the smile more complete and broad and more appealing. And that is a big boost in someone’s confidence and because their appearance is improved. And so like with the appearance improvements.
The fact that the tooth is, yes, like we talked about, made from a ceramic material, it gives that kind of shiny, beautiful, life-like appearance, which is highly desirable in most people. It enhances oral health. So dental implants can also enhance oral health by just replacing the gaps, which means less food is stuck between the teeth.
You’re not really chewing on your gums as well. That’s the other problem. If you don’t replace missing teeth, you end up just eating using your gums, which you can kind of scratch and cut your gums often, if that’s the case. So replacing the missing teeth with a dental implant basically gives you better chewing capacity without those complications.
So another question is like, how does the process of getting an implant get started? And like, what does that process look like? So to answer that question, the first step is a consultation with one of our implant experts. So the implant expert will assess like the appearance of your mouth, like what they’re looking for is the width of the bone and the gum in the area where the tooth is missing because without bone the implant has nothing to be placed into. And without gum, the same thing, the implant will have problems being installed. So the implant expert will assess the width and the size and the quality of the gum and bone in the area where the implant is planned to be placed.
They will do this visually by checking under high magnification light and using special magnification glasses. In addition, they are going to most likely order a 3D X-ray. This is called a cone beam CT scan. The width and the size of bone available for the implant to be placed into. And from the visual exam and the 3D X-ray examination, the implant expert will be able to give you an idea of the cost and the complexity of the case to install an implant in your mouth and then guide you through the step by step process specific to your needs. In most cases, in a simple implant case, the implant can be placed directly into the bone and then three months later after the bone has healed around the implants, the ceramic fake tooth will be installed on top and the procedure is considered finished.
There are a few review appointments after this just to make sure that the implant is going well but yeah it’s a pretty straightforward procedure. If there isn’t enough bone in the area as determined from the initial examination then there might be some pre-implant surgery that would be required so this is called you know bone grafting or soft tissue grafting whereby we try to grow extra bone or extra gum, which is required for the successful placement of that implant. And so these are procedures that will be done first. And then once we know that there’s enough bone quality and bone volume there for the implant to be placed, then the implant will then be placed after the bone grafting and then the final tooth will be fitted on top of the implant roughly about three months after the implant has been placed.
All right so hopefully that makes sense. This is Dr Charlie Sung from Choice Dental. Hopefully you have a great day. Hopefully you have a great day.
