Dental Implants – Strong, Secure And Long Lasting

Implants can benefit a wide range of patients.

Dental implants are rapidly becoming the ‘go to’ method for replacing missing teeth. Whilst dentures are still used, an increasing number of patients find that they are inconvenient, sometimes uncomfortable and unstable in the mouth.

At the Clock Tower Dental Clinic in Epsom, Surrey, we are able to offer our patients both individual and multiple implants. Where a number of teeth need to be replaced, it may prove both impractical and expensive to replace each one with an individual implant. In this circumstance, it is possible to use just a few implants which then hold a fixed bridge in place.

Who benefits?

The only patients that we can rule out of having dental implants, without the need for examination, are younger patients who have not yet fully developed facially. To place a dental implant into a patient who is too young, would cause significant future problems as the jawbone grew. In cases such as these, a temporary measure such as a bridge or dentures, might be used until they are old enough to receive implants.

Adults

Whilst we would hope that good oral health care and regular dental check ups would minimise the number of lost teeth, this can still happen. Sometimes it is due to poor care or even lack of professional treatment due to dental anxiety. Even with the best care in the world though, accidents can and do happen and teeth can be lost in this way. Older patients especially, can benefit from dental implant placement as the number of teeth lost often increases as we reach the later stages of our life. Some of this is just natural wear and tear, but gum disease is also more common in older people and may lead to tooth loss.

As people are living to be older nowadays, a healthy diet is important to help to keep us fit and active for as long as possible and maintain a good quality of life. Where teeth have been lost, or dentures make eating difficult, nutritional intake can suffer as patients opt for softer foods in a more restricted diet.

With dental implants, once bonded with the jawbone and fitted with a dental crown, patients should be able to eat anything that they wish, enabling them to enjoy the pleasure of eating as well as getting healthy, broad-based nutrition. So implants are not just about filling a gap left by a lost tooth, but also about replacing full biting and chewing function too.

Dental implants in brief

We will cover the details of dental implants in a future blog, but essentially they are a screw like object made from titanium which is placed into the jawbone. A period of approximately three months is then needed for the bone to bond with the implant, in effect becoming an artificial tooth root. A crown is then added to the implant which provides the patient with a strong and long lasting tooth replacement.

If you would like to find out more about the benefits of dental implants and how they can help you, please call our Epsom dental practice on 01372 720136.