Dental Implants
Get Your Bite Back, Get Your Smile Back!
Replacing Missing Teeth
A full set of healthy teeth are an important aspect of your body to maintain your overall good health. Proper chewing and digestion are dependent upon a strong, healthy, full set of teeth. Unfortunately, missing teeth can cause greater problems in addition to damaging your smile. Missing teeth can prematurely wear out your other remaining teeth through improper chewing and bite. You may also experience TMJ, jaw pain, and be prone to infection.
Dental Implants are the best option for replacing missing teeth. A Dental Implant consists of a medical grade titanium screw permanently fixed in the jawbone, with a permanent metal crown attached.
Although other options exist to replace your missing teeth, implants function like your natural teeth, with no extended accessories.
We recommend dental implants to replace your lost teeth, as soon as possible after your extraction. You want to maintain your jaw bone level, which is at risk of melting away due to lack of teeth. Dental implants are the ideal replacement to preserve your healthy jaw, ability to chew, and overall appearance.
AAOMS Best Solution
for Missing Teeth
Reasons for dental implants:
- Replace one or more missing teeth without affecting adjacent teeth, and help maintain jaw bone from resorbing.
- Resolve joint pain or bite problems caused by teeth shifting into missing tooth space.
- Restore a patient’s confident smile.
- Restore chewing, speech, and digestion.
- Restore or enhance facial tissues.
- Support a bridge or denture, making them more secure and comfortable.
- Durability
- Convenience
Implant Process Overview
What are the
Components of Dental Implants
Dental implants are a relatively easy process, ensuring a lifetime of healthy teeth. The process involves surgical placement of a medical-grade titanium screw directly placed under the jawbone under local or general anesthesia. The process involves:
- 2 - 3 appointments after extraction in most cases for the successful implant placement
- Preparing the socket to receive the implant, which may require bone grafting / membrane
- Utilizing the patient’s own blood to increase acceptance of the implant in many cases, that helps in the healing of the bone graft (platelet rich plasma process)
- Placing the implant after the socket is ready under local or general anesthesia
- Placing the healing collar after the implant area has healed
Upon placement of the healing collar, your restorative dentist will take impressions for the crown fabrication, with the crown placed a few weeks later. We will work with your restorative dentist throughout this process to ensure success and restore your healthy teeth.
Dental Implant Surgery
How Can I Afford Implants?
Insurance
Most insurance policies vary on coverage related to implants: you need to contact your insurance carrier to understand what scenarios are covered (including medical vs dental diagnosis, accident-related, etc,). In your initial consultation, we can identify the scope of dental procedures needed and the treatment plan recommended by Dr. Khan. Our implant team can then work with you to identify insurance and payment options.
Healthcare Financing
To help make your oral surgery needs affordable, our office provides several financing options. Proceed Finance and CareCredit help to make the treatments and procedures you want and need possible today.
Enjoying your smile and healthy eating like normal – dental implants are the closest thing to your own teeth!
Dental Implants
A Long Term Solution
All-On-X / Full Mouth Restorations
For patients who need to replace many teeth, have more severe gum disease, or who have significant bone loss, All-On-X implants are a great option. All-On-X Implants, also known as a Full Arch Restoration, involve the placement of multiple dental implants on each jaw, and and may involve maxillary sinus lifts, bone grafting, and platelet rich plasma, to ensure the highest level of success. Then a complete set of “permanent” looking and feeling replacement teeth can be attached at these secure points. With these implants, you don’t need to worry about your artificial teeth falling out, causing gum pain, pinching, or other challenges associated with traditional full dentures.
Who Can Get an Implant?
Implants work for almost anyone who needs to replace one or more teeth. Contact us for a free consultation to learn more. Dr. Khan and his trained staff can do a full evaluation for the best possible treatment plan.
Is it painful?
Most patients report that there is very little or no discomfort with the placement of implants. We use local anesthetics to numb the area. Most people need no pain medicine, or possibly just a few doses of over the counter pain medication after the procedure. Listen to our Patient Stories to hear from some of our patients first-hand.
Bone Grafting For Successful Implants
We provide safe and comfortable bone grafts under IV sedation in our office for dental implants to help save your teeth and jaw.
Bone grafting is required if your jawbone is not thick enough or is too soft to continue with dental implant surgery. This is because the chewing action of the mouth is extremely powerful and exerts significant pressure on the jawbone. Without enough support from the bone, the dental implant would fail. A bone graft, then, can create a more solid base for the implant to succeed. Dental bone grafts are extremely common procedures.
In bone grafting, allograft bone graft, obtained from a human tissue bank, is placed in the area where the bone is weak, and it is then fused to the existing bone. It may take some time for the transplanted bone to grow and heal enough to support a dental implant. A successful bone graft allows your jawbone to be strong enough to support your dental implant.
Who Needs Dental Bone Grafting?
Anyone who has experienced significant bone loss in their jaw, especially:
- After a tooth extraction
- Prior to replacing a missing tooth with an implant
- Patients with significant bone loss due to severe periodontal or gum disease
Once the bone graft is complete, the rest of the implant surgery can proceed. As with any surgical procedure, it is important to discuss your personal medical history and all the risks and benefits of the surgery with your experienced oral surgeon. Once your doctor decides you are a good fit for the procedure, you can look forward to a brand-new smile.
During the surgery, Dr. Khan will numb the grafting and extraction sites using local anesthetic. Most patients sleep through the procedure thanks to our dental IV sedation team. A small incision will be made to prepare the site for the new bone, and it will be anchored into place. The surgery does not require an overnight stay, and we will provide you with comprehensive instructions for your post-operative care. Dr. Khan will prescribe medications to help manage infection, discomfort, and swelling.
