Whether you’re living with one missing tooth or many, chances are dental implants will be one of the most durable, reliable, natural-looking ways to restore your smile.
When expertly placed by our team in a suitable candidate, dental implants have a success rate of more than 95% over the long term. But there are a few crucial factors that will determine whether dental implants are just the right option for your situation.
We sat down with our principal dentist Dr Andrew Teakle to talk about the different issues that will affect whether you’re a good candidate for dental implants.
As far as tooth replacement options go, it’s safe to say Dr Teakle is a fan of titanium dental implants.
“The great thing about dental implants is that they’re a reliable and very strong tooth restoration, usable in a lot of different circumstances,” said Dr Teakle.
Whether you’re about to lose a tooth, you’ve already lost one, or you’ve been living with missing teeth for a while, dental implants can be complemented with other procedures to restore your smile.
“As long as you’re in good overall health there’s a great chance that dental implants could be ideal for you, regardless of your age,” Andrew said.
Dr Teakle put together a ‘dental implant checklist’ that can help you see whether implants are the right option for you. While many of these conditions will not completely prevent you from getting a dental implant, they will need to be addressed before you can begin your dental implant procedure.
Dental implants could be an ideal tooth replacement if you:
While most of these points are self-explanatory, a couple are worth exploring in more detail.
To be sure your dental implant can withstand the massive chewing and biting forces of your jaw, it will need to have a very stable and secure foundation in your jaw bone.
Bone is a very “high maintenance” part of your body. So when you lose a tooth, your body will stop maintaining the bone tissue that it thinks is no longer necessary. And this means your jaw bone will tend to deteriorate over time.
If this is the case for you, we may need to restore sufficient bone density and height in your jaw with a bone graft before your implant placement.
One of the ways we can do this is by harnessing your body’s own natural healing ability with our incredible new A-PRF process. You can read more about this amazing procedure here.
Gum disease is one of the most common causes of tooth loss in Australian adults. So if you are suffering from gum disease, we will need to completely address your condition before we begin restoring your missing teeth.
Once you have successfully undergone periodontal treatment, we can then move forward with your dental implant procedure.
“Smoking is also a big no-no whenever you’re aiming to increase your overall oral health – and that’s especially so when you’re considering dental implant surgery,” Andrew points out.
We happily recommend titanium dental implants as a modern, reliable, and affordable tooth restoration. The best way to discover whether dental implants could restore your smile is to book an individual consultation at Wickham Terrace Dental.
To find out whether dental implants are the right option for you, get in touch with us using the contact form here or call us on 3831 3031 today.