Dental Implants Aren't Your Grandpa's Dentures

Today's dental implants aren't your grandpa's dentures or your grandma's bridgework. While bridges and dentures were once the only option available for people with missing teeth, they weren't great options.

Dentures for example have to be refitted quite a bit due to the fact that they wear the jaw bone down which can in turn make the denture user experience uncomfortable or even painful. Not only are they an expensive option, they are also a high maintenance option that forces the user into a restricted diet to accommodate their usage. With very few pros on their side, dentures have lost a great deal of support for their use as other options such as dental implants present themselves.

Bridgework, which at one time was the only other option for people who had some but not all of their teeth, isn't much of an improvement over dentures since it also required the user to have a restricted diet. Much like dentures, bridgework also required refitting as the jaw bone wore down from using the bridge.

Not satisfied with these limited options, the idea of dental implants was born offering the best of both of these concepts in a more permanent package that did not damage the jaw bone like its predecessors but instead utilizes it and becomes one with it through bone grafting.

Implants look like real teeth on the surface and are indistinguishable from your natural teeth that surround it. Your dentist can even create a dental implant that is the same shade as your natural surrounding teeth to ensure it blends in unnoticed.

The entire procedure from start to finish for dental implants to be surgically installed can take about six months, which is its greatest downside to their usage. This is not a quick fix but it is a permanent fix. Many clients who have had implants installed still have them in place even twenty years later, so clearly they last without creating the oral health problems that their temporary counterparts do.

There are only two main requirements to be considered a viable candidate for implants. First you must have an adequate bone density in order for the implanted teeth to take root properly. Dental implants work much like your natural tooth that take root within your jaw bone. If your jaw bone lacks the needed density the titanium screw won't be able to take proper root within the bone and the surrounding bone won't be able to adhere to the screw, thus permanently attaching the dental implant to your body.

The second requirement is that you don't smoke. Smokers have a higher rate of failure for implants because of the increased risk for infection brought on by smoking.

So, if you're a nonsmoker and you're ready for an option that your grandparents didn't have, now is the time to talk to your dentist about your choices, including implants.