What are Dental Implants?

Dental Implants in simple terms is when a tooth is lost, an artifical root, which is made out of titanium screw, is surgically placed inside the bone. An abutment with its crown is what you see above the gum when an implant is restored. It is best to leave the implant inside the bone to heal for about 5-6 moths before restoring it with an abutment - crown. This is done mainly to insure the implant is going to be stable after the patient starts using the tooth to eat.

If an implant starts to move after the patient starts using it, that means the implant has failed and needs to be removed. After several months of healing the bone or even adding bone graft to the area, a new implant may be placed into that area again.

Implant surgery is not painful at all mainly because the bone has no nerve. Since an implant is screwed inside the bone, the patient shouldn't feel too uncomfortable since what we sense as pain is transmitted only through nerves.

Since implants are placed inside the bone, they tend to stay in even after the patient looses the rest of his/her natural teeth. Therefore, if you have the choice to choose between a bridge, which are prosthetic crowns fused together to close a gap, and an implant, you should always choose the implant since the bridge is cemented on your natural teeth which sooner or later will fail or will fall out because of gum disease. Since implants are placed inside the bone and not around tissue, they will never be prone to get loose because of periodontal disease. Our natural teeth have periodontal ligaments lining all around their roots whereas an implant does not have any contact with periodontal ligaments and it is only associated with bone.

Before placing implants, a CT scan is a good indicator of where nerves are located as well as estimating how much bone the dentist has to work with in order to place the implant. According to the CT scan, Dr. Ohanian is able to choose the right size, length, as well as the positioning of the implant in order to avoid any complications.

If the implants are to be place on the bottom jaw for example, the inferior alveolar nerve as well as the mental nerve are to be payed extra attention since they tend to run along the jaw from the back to the premolar areas.

On the back side of the maxilla(upper) for example, the sinuses need to be payed attention mainly to avoid the implant from penetrating inside.

Implants may also be placed on edentulous (no teeth present) areas and an overdenture or a bridge placed on top to provide better security than conventional dentures.

If you are a new patient or an existing patient, call our office for a FREE dental implant consultation. Dr. Ohanian does implant placement surgery and restoration in our office. Consultation will only take few minutes as she examines your mouth and palpates the gums to check for bone mass. In some cases, one X-Ray may be required for better diagnosis.

Call Adult and Kid's Dental Care to schedule in your free consultation (818)881-6761.