Dental Implants

Dental implants have evolved quite a bit in the past 10-15 years. Now the landscape for dental treatments is evolving due to the success we have had with implant therapy. Read more for some of the advantages implants offer.

Advantages over ‘bridges’ as a single or multiple tooth replacement

In the past, where bridges used to be good options for replacing teeth, implants are now being planned, and for good reason, too. Several advantages of implants over bridges are:

Adjacent teeth are not bound together, so flossing and cleaning is just as easy as with natural teeth.
The teeth surrounding the missing teeth are not affected. This is healthier for the teeth that are still there, and regular maintenance is more simple.
Implants have better long-term survival statistically than bridges.
Implants can often be placed where bridges cannot.

Does this mean that you should consider having your bridges removed and replaced with implants? Not necessarily. There are many serviceable bridges out there right now, and occasionally, a new bridge is still a good option. This all depends on your specific scenario.

Benefits for dentures

I no longer recommend a full denture on the lower jaw as a treatment without some way to stabilize it. For those with upper and lower dentures, you likely understand that a lower denture does not work as well as an upper denture. Using implants, we can stabilize a lower denture so that it works as well or better than an upper denture. This gives the following advantages:

Better ability to chew
More confidence to smile or talk without the denture coming loose
Bigger selection of food choices
Overall higher quality of life

We can also stabilize upper dentures with implants if necessary, however, often people are happy with their upper dentures and cannot justify the cost. But there are still reasons to consider implants to stabilize an upper denture:

Reduced bone loss over time, which means that you can continue to have dentures made every 5-8 years that do not require denture adhesive and remain stable
Some patients cannot tolerate the part of the denture that is in the roof of the mouth. For these patients, it is possible to have a much sleeker denture with less bulk on the top if we can help stabilize it with implants

Implants as a way to prevent bone loss

The teeth are naturally held by a piece of bone called the alveolar ridge. The teeth stimulate this bone to grow and everyday chewing forces stimulate the bone as well, similar to the way exercise prevents muscles from deteriorating. If teeth are lost, then the bone tends to shrink, just like muscles that are not being used.

How does this relate to implants? Well, implants are placed into the alveolar ridge, and this provides the necessary stimulation to help maintain that bone.

Great, you might be saying, but why is the alveolar ridge so important? The answer is simple. Teeth, implants, even dentures, partial dentures, and bridges all rely on the alveolar ridge to be present for support. So, without the alveolar ridge, the only option we have to chew our food is our gums! This works O.K. for babies, who rely primarily on milk and baby food, but for adults, this poses a problem.

Read more about bone loss related to dentures