What Are Dental Implants?
An explanation into what they are and the process.
Introduction
Dental implants look, feel and function like natural teeth.
They can give you a real boost in both your private and professional life, allowing you to eat, speak and smile with confidence. This is because losing one or more teeth creates a gap in your smile, which can affect your speech and your ability to enjoy your favourite foods. Loss of teeth can also affect your confidence, your sense of well-being and your oral hygiene can suffer. Also, when a tooth is lost the bone beneath it begins to shrink and becomes brittle. This loss of bone can cause the shape of your face to change and this in turn can make you look much older.
A dental implant placed in the area where a tooth is missing can actually stimulate bone growth thus preventing any loss of facial structure and maintaining a youthful appearance.
Dental implants will therefore help you because they:
- maintain bone structure and prevent further bone loss
- maintain a youthful appearance
- enable you to enjoy foods you love
- improve your speech
- improve your oral hygiene
- do not interfere with your healthy teeth
- will make you want to SMILE!
A dental implant is a small man-made titanium screw that serves as the replacement for the root portion of a missing natural tooth. The implant is placed in the bone of the upper or lower jaw and when bonded with the bone, serves as an anchor for the replacement tooth. Dental implants can be used to replace a single lost tooth or many missing teeth.
At Cudworth Dental we are proud to only place Straumann implants that are one of the leading manufacturers which is one of the reasons why our success rate is over 97%.
If placed correctly and properly looked after Dental Implants will last many years. We recommend seeing the dental hygienist regularly after having implants placed to ensure they are correctly looked after, maintaining your smile and protecting your investment.
The Implant Process
- Initially you will be assessed for your suitability for implants during an implant consultation – this is £100 or reduced to £50 for Denplan members
- If you appear to be suitable for dental implants we will take a CT scan which costs £125
- A treatment plan will be agreed if your definitely suitable and you will be given a fixed price
- Any broken teeth will initially need to be extracted and allowed to heal for 6-8 weeks (we will provided some temporary teeth if needed)
- Implants are then placed and allowed to heal for 3 months
- Then impressions are taken of your mouth
- Then your new teeth are usually fitted 3 weeks later