Hold back the years with today’s dental implants

11/04/2008

In the UK more than eleven million people wear some kind of denture, nearly six million have no teeth at all - and soon 40% of the 'rock ‘n roll stay forever young' Baby Boomers will need to replace teeth. So could the new technology now available for dental implants be the solution - both physically and cosmetically?

 

In the past, replacing lost teeth with dentures was the only solution - but they can create problems for eating and overall self-esteem, whilst bone loss can affect the whole face, making it become slack and wrinkled. Modern dental implants are a completely different solution: they make it possible to eat an unrestricted diet, talk and socialise with confidence - and help to retain the bone in the face, thereby holding back the years.

 

Dental implants are titanium fixtures inserted into the jaw, and because the body perceives the implants to be part of the “self”, living bone actually grows upon the titanium implant surface. Individual implants may be used to replace  single missing teeth, and fixed bridges retained by multiple implants may be used to replace several missing teeth.

 

They can also be used to stabilise a loose or uncomfortable denture.

Until just recently having implants took several months, and sometimes more than a year. Now new developments have speeded up treatment meaning that new fixed permanent teeth can be fitted in weeks, days, or, in some cases, less than an hour.

 

Andrew Dawood, one of Britain’s leading specialists in implant dentistry, has pioneered ground-breaking advances in the UK such as “Teeth in a Day” and “Teeth in an Hour”. He said: “Dental implants are the most exciting advance in modern dentistry. They can restore both oral function and cosmetic appearance, greatly improving the quality of life for people who thought they could never eat normally again.

 

“Implant dentistry has been transformed by modern sophisticated digital imaging and minimally invasive computer-guided surgery, which enhance the precision, predictability and success of implant procedures. For complex cases one can even build anatomically accurate 3-D models of a patient’s jaw so that surgery can be carefully pre-planned before treatment. The implants can last a lifetime and are more than 95% successful.”

 

Implants are now in common use where only a few teeth are missing - perhaps as the result of being knocked out by an accident. The advantages of choosing an implant to a crown include the fact that:

 

• An implant retained crown or bridge has a similar, or even better appearance than a normal crown or bridge, as it appears to emerge from the gum naturally.

• Replacing a missing tooth with an implant avoids the necessity to crown adjacent healthy teeth as would normally be necessary to support a conventional bridge.

• The presence of an implant will slow the change in shape of the bone and gum where a tooth has been lost. Indeed, it is sometimes possible to improve the contour of the area where a tooth is missing by placing an implant.

 

The actual surgical procedure takes about twenty minutes per implant, is usually carried out under local anaesthetic, and most patients report little or no discomfort either during or after the surgery.

 

After the implant, the whole area is usually allowed to heal for some weeks. 

 

Scientific studies have shown that implants that survive the first three months are most unlikely to give problems later on - in other words, if there is going to be a problem, it is likely to be early on in treatment.