The dental implant. What is the dental implant? Why choose an implant?

The dental implant has revolutionized, in the last years, the field of dental medicine, by improving the quality of the used materials, nowadays offering the possibility of a correct aesthetic and functional restoration. The dental implant is the best solution for missing teeth. It offers the possibility of recovering the mastication/chewing function, as well as functionality and aesthetics.

Why dental implant and not other types of restoration?

The dental implant is the preferable treatment in case of missing teeth, effectively replacing the missing ones. The dental implant is the only one that gives the patient the possibility to recover his tooth without the need to sacrifice other healthy teeth, being created precisely by the desire to keep as many teeth as possible from the oral cavity of each patient.

If 10-15 years ago the only solution when one or more teeth was/were lost was to make a bridge or a dental prosthesis, nowadays we can rehabilitate such a loss by dental implants which basically substitute the lost tooth or teeth, without the need to intervene on adjacent teeth. It is the only minimally invasive solution which gives us the opportunity to recreate the functionality of the lost teeth. The dental implants are made of titanium, a material which is biocompatible with the oral cavity tissues. The dental implants have different shapes and lengths in order to adapt to the needs of each patient. The insertion of a dental implant is done by a dentist specialized in oral surgery. The intervention is minor and is often done only with a local anesthesia. Sometimes, because some patients are more sensitive and do not want to remember anything during the intervention, they can be given an intravenous anesthesia which is done by the anesthetist, in the clinic.

In recent years, the technology has evolved in a thundering way, so nowadays placing an implant lasts between 10-30 minutes. Likewise, the technological evolution and the use of biocompatible materials have made the integration time of an implant to be lower and the failure rate of an implant is below 5%.

The dental implant is inserted where there is no tooth and it is the substitute for the dental root, and a ceramic crown will be applied on the implant. The implant will be inserted after the tooth has been extracted or in the same session with the extraction, as appropriate.

The ceramic dental crowns are mounted on the dental implants by a special procedure, adapted to each case.