Dental Implants

• Have you lost all or some of your natural teeth? Bridges, dentures and flexible dentures are not the only solutions, thanks to advances in modern dentistry.
• Dental implants are small metal screws that are placed in the jaw so that crowns, bridges, and dentures can be fixed onto them.
• Implant dentistry offers a clinically proven and safe solution to getting back a great smile and being able to bite and chew with confidence. When you lose your natural teeth, your jaw bone and surround tissues start to resorb or disappear over time. When implants are placed in the jaw, it stimulates the remaining bone to grow and mesh around the metal, along with tiny blood vessels.
• More importantly, implants help restore function so you can eat, chew and bite without your dentures falling out or having to stick to a soft food diet for the rest of your life.

How long do implants last?
Implants are not susceptible to cavities, but they can develop gum disease if not cared for properly. Just like natural teeth, the implant needs to be kept clean and checked by your dentist at regular intervals. If cared for properly, most implants (the titanium screw portion) will provide a lifetime of service, although the crown or appliance attached to the implant may need to be replaced from wear and tear.
As a cost comparison, if you have a missing tooth and decide to have it replaced with a bridge, you can assume that the bridge will need to be replaced every 15 years (which is a conservative estimate). Compared to the cost of placing an implant, replacing the bridge several times over the course of a lifetime could cost four or five times as much as having the implant done. This does not even take into consideration the fact that the teeth used to support a bridge will very likely develop problems of their own over time.