Dr. Leo Arellano is a Dentist who has answered some of the common questions bizymoms visitors have about Dental Implants.
Q. What are dental implants?
A. Dental implants are a way of replacing missing teeth by acting like substitute tooth roots in the jaw bone. They can then be attached to crowns and bridges to replace single and multiple teeth or help support, stabilize, and retain loose partial and full dentures.
Q. What are the benefits of dental implants?
A.
1) Dental implants, like our own natural teeth, stop continued jaw bone loss -- 25% in the 1st year, 40 to 60% in 3 to 5 years, and about 1% every year thereafter -- after a tooth is lost.
2) Dental implants allow the replacement of teeth without unnecessarily treating or drilling on our own remaining natural teeth that do not need treatment. Because of this, they are now considered more conservative treatment to replace missing teeth.
3) Dental implants allow us to keep teeth separated so that only the teeth needing work are treated. Everything we do in dentistry may need to be reworked in the future. If teeth are connected together, then even if some of the parts are not defective they will all need to be replaced if connected together resulting in more complex treatment at a higher cost.
4) Dental implants cannot get tooth decay.
Q. How long does an implant last?
A. Studies show that dental implants have a success rate from the mid to high 90% after 5 years. Generally, dental implants can be a lifetime restoration and failures, if they happen, occur early on. Many things can influence this from your general health and lifestyle to the complexity of the required treatment needed to insert the dental implant.
Q. What are implants made of?
A. Dental implants are usually made of titanium metal. More recently because of the trend toward the use of non-metallic materials, a ceramic called zirconium has recently been approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for its use in dental implants. Both titanium and zirconium are already used by orthopedic surgeons for replacing hip and knee joints.
Q. Who is a candidate for implants?
A. All ages beginning with young adults past the age of active bone growth and older are candidates for dental implants. Generally:
1) There must be enough bone to surround and support the dental implant while maintaining a safe distance to avoid damage to vital structures such as nerves, sinuses, etc. In many instances, there are ways to generate additional bone if needed.
2) Health conditions that affect healing are a concern. This includes uncontrolled diabetes, smoking, and the use of oral and intravenous bisphosphonates, such as Fosamax, used in the treatment of osteoporosis and certain cancers. Proper management of these conditions may still allow the use of dental implants.
3) Bruxism -- abnormal teeth clenching and grinding -- can create excessive destructive stresses on dental implants. Again, the proper diagnosis and management of this type of bite problem can minimize this destructive stress.
Q. How are dental implants placed?
A. Typically, the placement of a dental implant is a comfortable procedure that can be performed using only local anesthetics. The diagnosis, planning, and treatment might involve the use of conventional and CAT scan type of dental x-rays, study models of your teeth, and mouth appliances called surgical guides that all help to optimize treatment and minimize any risks as needed. The dental implant is inserted into the jaw bone in such a way to allow the bone to properly heal around it. If appropriate, additional bone regeneration may be done at the time of placement. If there is a tooth present where the dental implant is going to be placed, the ability to immediately place a dental implant at the time of tooth extraction needs to be determined. The dental implant is then allowed to heal completely either exposed in the mouth or under the gum depending on the circumstances. This healing could take as little as 3 months to as long as 6 to 9 months depending on the pre-existing condition of the bone. The final restoring of the dental implant can be immediately started after healing in the case where the gum did not heal over the dental implant. Otherwise, the dental implant will need to be "uncovered" and the gum allowed to again heal -- 2 to 6 weeks -- before the restoring can be started.
Q. How long does it take?
A. Although there is a trend toward faster, all studies are based on the "gold standard" of allowing healing between each general step of the procedure. This could take about a year or more from the time of tooth extraction to the finished final restoration that connects to the dental implant. If ideal conditions are present and an immediate implant placement can be done at the time of tooth extraction, it could take less than 6 months to complete the final restoration.
Q. How to contact Dr. Arellano if we have further questions?
A.
Address:
3030 Geary Boulevard
San Francisco, CA 94118
Phone: 415-240-4973
Email: ddsleo@gmail.com
Website:www.DrLeoArellano.com
