Explain Dental Implants, please!

If you want your new teeth to be just like your natural teeth in appearance, comfort and function, then dental implants might be the answer. They are hands down the closest you can ever come to having natural teeth again.

For the past four decades, dentists like Dr. Ron Receveur have been placing implants with tremendous success. An implant is essentially a titanium screw that bonds to your jawbone in a process called osseointegration. Titanium is so compatible with your bone that not only does the bone fuse to it—there has never been any evidence of allergies. The bond is so strong that the implant is able to support anything from a single tooth, to a complete denture (supported by multiple implants). Implants are made out of titanium…the same type of material used on artificial joints and don’t get decayed like natural teeth. Implants preserve your natural bone structure so you can maintain the shape of your face and avoid continued bone loss where teeth are missing.

While every case is different, the healing period for traditional implants generally lasts between two and six months. There are many Mini-Implant cases where there is NO healing period and we can attach your denture immediately.

The number of implants that you will require depends mainly on the restoration that they will support, and whether they are in the lower or upper jaw (which requires more implants because the bone is softer).

Tell me the Difference between Implants and Mini-Implants.

Regular or Traditional Implants have been placed for decades and I’ve restored my patients’ mouths with these implants for over 20 years. These implants have been generally 3.5 mm (millimeters) to 6 mm in diameter and anywhere from 10 mm to 16 mm or so in length. Up until just the last few years, if your bone wasn’t “thick” enough or substantial enough for this size of an implant, your only choice was to have bone grafting or do without implants. With FDA approval of Mini-implant use for long term restoration of missing teeth and support for dentures and partials, the whole game has changed.

Mini-Implants are 1.8 mm to 2.5 or 3.0 mm in diameter and are able to be placed in areas of much narrower bone. So, a good option for people who have lost a lot of their bone structure is mini-implants. If you’ve been told in the past that you are not a candidate for implants because of bone loss, you may be a candidate for Mini-Implants.

Who Can Benefit from Mini-Implants?

Well, just about anyone who is missing teeth!

Advantages of Mini-Implant Supported Dentures:

Mini-Implants are about half the size of a traditional implant, so they can be used in areas where traditional implants won’t work. With less bone needed, costly and time consuming bone grafts can often be avoided.

Less Healing Time: One-step surgery is simple, gentle and quicker when compared to the often multiple steps for regular implants; about 90 minutes usually.

Immediate Results: Frequently, Mini-Implants allow us to attach your denture to the implants right away. Have your implants placed one day and eat corn on the cob the next day!

No more adhesives!

The roof of your mouth doesn’t have to be covered any more!

All-on-4 or Teeth-in-an-Hour. What are These?

Both of these popular options are implant supported teeth that we screw directly to your implants and they stay in permanently. This option is very dainty and lightweight. I’ve actually fabricated an All-on-4 for a family member. It’s a very nice option (not the cheapest). It screws into the implants “permanently”.

Can I get all porcelain crowns on top of implants?

Finally, for patients who come in before they experience significant bone loss, we can place crowns or bridges on a full arch of implants. Implants support the same crowns that would normally be used on natural teeth. This option is just like having natural teeth again.

Why Is Everyone Talking About Implants?

Even if you only look at the statistics for developed countries, the numbers of missing teeth are staggering. Everywhere you look—huge percentages of people are missing at least some of their teeth and in the US over 22% of people over 65 are missing ALL of their natural teeth.

The sad part is that the vast majority of those people are still using conventional dentures. Although conventional dentures are an acceptable solution, they are light-years behind the technology of dental implants. Although dental implants have been used successfully for the past four decades, only 3% of those who are missing all of their natural teeth are taking advantage of them.

Some projections show that nearly 40 million people in the US alone will require at least one complete upper or lower denture by the year 2020.

Luckily for them, dental technology has advanced so much in the past decade or so that they won’t need to suffer the discomfort that their parents and grandparents experienced with their dental treatments.

According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, people aged 50 to 64 years of age have, on average, 22 of their natural teeth. This is down from the original 28 teeth (excluding four wisdom teeth). They also state that 10% of people in this age group have no teeth at all.

Usually, the first teeth that are lost are the ones in the back that do all of the heavy chewing. As these larger back teeth are lost, it becomes increasingly difficult for your mouth to do its job. It is imperative that food is chewed properly to start the digestion process.

To compare properly chewed food to improperly chewed food in your stomach, think of dissolving sugar in a glass of water. If you were to drop a sugar cube in one glass and a teaspoon of regular sugar in another glass, the sugar cube would take longer to dissolve. This is because the sugar cube has less surface area exposed to the water.

The more effectively you are able to chew your food, the more surface area is exposed to the digestive juices and the more effectively you’ll be able to take nutrients from the food. If food isn’t chewed properly, it can pass through the digestive system without delivering all of its nutritional value.

In addition to the amount of nutritional value that you get from everything you eat, you need to consider the amount of eating that you do. When you’re wearing uncomfortable dentures that cause you to gag and keep you from fully tasting your food, you tend to enjoy eating a lot less. When you start wearing implant supported dentures which are smaller, lighter and more comfortable, you’ll enjoy eating a wider variety of foods again.

Why not call Dr. Receveur’s office and schedule a no obligation consultation to see how Implants or Mini-Implants can benefit you?

Age Group	Number of Remaining Teeth
20-34 years	26.90
35-49 years	25.05
50-64 years	22.30

Age Group	Percentage with no Remaining Teeth
35-49 years	2.63%
50-64 years	10.13%

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