Dental Implants: Facts About This Innovative Technology

Despite dental implants having been around for a very long time, they are anything but an old technology. As changes have happened, medical science has allowed dental implants to become a technology that is head and shoulders above the competition. Some of our patients in Mission Viejo, especially those that are considering changing away from some of the more traditional prosthetics to an implant, have questions about why implants are so much better. For starters, a dental implant is inserted directly into your jawbone by a skilled dentist, oral surgeon or periodontist. This allows the titanium implant to fuse perfectly with the organic tissue. This gives your implant the strength and stability the jawbone offers to your natural teeth.

There really is no comparable advancements made by dentures, which still use adhesive to be bonded inside the mouth, and bridges, which are still being cemented in place. Even more impressive, when you have dental implants inserted you are getting the strongest, most durable, and best-looking solution to tooth loss. The fact that the device is inserted below the gum line means that we have a blank slate above the gum to give you the most impressive looking, realistic teeth.

When it comes to dental implants, the fact that they are a surgically installed prosthetic, which is also permanent, makes people want to know all the answers before they make an educated decision. For patients who already have a prosthetic device, they want to be sure they are making the right decision in terms of longevity, how long will these devices last, acceptance by the body, and how long the recovery time will take. These are perfectly normal questions about any procedure. Longevity wise, dental implants have been known to last as long as thirty years, and as little as seven years. The life cycle of an implant is hard to predict because there are so many variables. For example, you have no idea of know if you will be in an accident, or develop some kind of gum disease in the future. On the other hand, we know that good oral hygiene habits and dietary habits can help you with ensuring that the implants last longer. Implants are typically very successful. The installation success rate varies, study to study, from 93% to 98% with the vast majority of cases being completely successful. Naturally there are other factors that influence how well the install does, and how successful it will be.

To account for all the factor that could influence an installation, and the longevity of your dental implants, we do the installation in steps. At the end of each step, you will have the opportunity to recover for between ten and fourteen days.  When you return we will double check all the work we have done, make sure nothing changed, make any changes that may be needed, and then proceed to the next step. This allows our Mission Viejo office to be much more effective with the installations and also allows you a shorter recovery time after the entire process is completed. Typically, after the dental implants are in place, you will need to rest and not use the tooth for about 2 weeks.