DENTAL IMPLANTS
In 1952, a Swedish surgeon named Branemark, observed bone growth around Titanium in a rabbit’s leg.
Branemark continued his studies on both human and rabbit, and after several experiments, he could finally prove this useful characteristic of Titanium.
Finally, In 1965, Branemark placed the first contemporary dental implant inside a patient’s mouth.
What is an implant?
An implant is a screw made of Titanium or Zirconia which is placed and fixed inside the jaw bone with a surgical procedure.
Then the prosthesis is placed on top of the implant which looks like a natural tooth.
An implant is useful when the patient has lost functionality in some teeth and can be used to replace a single tooth or all the teeth.
The superstructures can be either removable or fixed.
Implant’s advantages
The biggest advantages are preserving the bone and preventing the bone loss.
Meanwhile, as opposed to the bridges, with implants there is no need to shave down and weaken the adjacent teeth.
The implants can also make the removable dentures much more stable in the mouth.
Implants vs bridges
In the bridge, we use the adjacent teeth as the base but Implants are independent to the neighboring teeth and the other teeth stay intact.
On the other hand, In the bridge cases the post-extraction bone loss will continue, as opposed to the implant which preserves the jaw bone.
Immediate implant
After any tooth extraction, the gum and the bone starts to shrink.
Immediate dental implant placement is a method to minimalize this tissue loss.
In some cases, we can pull out the tooth and place an implant with a temporary crown in the same appointment.
The Immediate Implant is usually recommended for the front teeth
Atraumatic extraction with Easy X-TRAC System
The Easy X-TRAC System uses a unique root extractor to reduce the risk of damage to the surrounding tissues.
It is used to perform a minimally invasive tooth extraction on single and double rooted teeth.
The system allows for immediate implantation after extraction, and eliminates all rotary/pulling movements, post traumatic swelling, and need for bone restoration.
Digital Planning/Fully guided treatment
For any treatment planning we need to analyze the patient three dimensional scan in a software designed for implant treatment planning
By evaluating the jaw structures we are able to plan our treatment, prior to performing surgery safely and precisely.
After making the digital treatment plan/plans we will have an appointment with the patient to discuss the possible plans.
When the plan is confirmed by the patient, the digital plan is then used to print a guide for the surgery, which will precisely install the implant into the bone often without having to cut away gums. By integrating the digital technology into our treatments we are enable to provide our patients with a more pleasant and predictable procedure that minimize the side effects. Our Fully Guided Implant Surgery requires less appointments, less procedures, and less healing period and with this technology we are able to install the implant and the teeth on the same day in many of cases.
Treatment under IV sedation
Intravenous sedation involves giving you an injection of sedative medications into in your arm.
Once you are sedated, you will feel relax and sleepy. IV sedation will help you have a more pleasant time during your dental treatment reducing your anxiety. This can be helpful for almost everyone, even those who do not feel anxious about dental surgeries
Different types of prosthesis for implants
Single tooth implant
In this treatment, we place one crown on one implant.
Implant-supported bridge
In this treatment, the number of crowns is more than the number of implants.
For example, we might replace three teeth with two implants and three crowns.
Hybrid prosthetic
For the patients with large amounts of bone and gum loss, we may need to rebuild the gum appearance using the pink materials.
These hybrid superstructures are fixed in the mouth and can only be removed by the dentist.
Over denture
The most common problem that removable denture wearers face, is the denture instability.
With placing some implants, the removable denture can seat tightly and securely on the implant structures, so the loose denture becomes stable.
The minimum number of implants for a lower overdenture is two and for an upper overdenture is four, however the quality and quantity of the remaining bone determine the number of implants.
All on 4
The term All-On-4 refers to the technique in which all fixed artificial teeth are supported by only four implants.
In this system, we place four strong implants in the front part of each jaw to support a fixed bridge or a hybrid prosthesis.
this technique usually obviates the need for grafting procedures.
Complementary surgeries for implant
Although most of the implant cases are the simple ones, in some cases some additional procedures may be required.
Sinus lift
Maxillary sinuses are respiratory spaces above the top molars and premolars.
When the top molars and premolars exist, the sinuses are limited to their natural borders; However when you lose a tooth which is close to sinuses, the sinus spaces expand and dissolve the adjacent bone structures.
On the other hand, losing a tooth results in some bone loss; It means the bone may not be enough for implants, so the sinus lift surgery may be needed to fix this problem.
Bone graft
A successful implant requires enough strong bone. If your jaw bone has receded, we can rebuild it with bone graft.
The materials used for bone grafting might be harvested from animal or human sources
Gum graft
After a tooth is pulled out, the gum starts to shrink back.
Immediate dental implant is a method to minimalize this issue, but in some cases when the border between the tooth and gum is visible in smile, placing an immediate implant is usually not enough.
For these patients, it is recommended that they have a gum graf.
In this surgery, a small piece of the soft tissue covering the palate is is placed on and around the implants.
The gum-graft is also recommended when the gum around the implants is not healthy and strong.
