Dental Education
- What happens when we lose our teeth?
- What is an implant?
- Which are the disadvantages of using dental implants?
- Which are the advantages of using dental implants?
- What is the purpose of using dental implants?
- How do implants contribute to recover the function and the aesthetics?
- Is age a limit for placing implants?
- Will the dental implants last a lifetime?
1. What happens when we lose our teeth?
Some of the consequences of the tooth loss are: esthetic compromise; decrease of masticatory efficiency (it is harder to chew); overload of the remaining teeth that will have to make the function of the lost teeth (therefore the remaining teeth could be injured or lost too); difficulty to talk or to say certain words; loose of lips support (wrinkles); inclination of the neighbor teeth; unstable bite; head and face muscles and articulation problems; decrease of the size of the bone that held the lost teeth (bone resorption).
2. What is an implant?
An implant is an artificial object that replaces a lost part of our body. This way, it will work as a part that we have lost.
3. Which are the disadvantages of using dental implants?
Dental implants must be placed inside the bone through a small surgery, which is painless but make some patients feel anxious.
4. Which are the advantages of using dental implants?
a) Preserve the underlying jawbone and therefore preserve the overlying facial structures, preventing them from collapsing. Once a tooth is lost and the jawbone is no longer stimulated by the pressure from chewing the body resorbs that area of jawbone.
b) Implants are more conservative than fixed bridges since the teeth on either side of the space do not have to be prepared (cut down) as abutments. Implants are also more flexible than fixed bridges since they do not require an existing tooth to be present on both sides of a space and several of them can be used to fill a space that is simple too long for a fixed bridge.
c) Implants make it easier for patients to maintain their periodontal health than fixed bridges because homecare is facilitated by being able to floss between the implants, therefore avoiding the floss threaders that are required for fixed bridges.
d) Life for an implant is longer than for a bridge or a removable denture: In 10-years studies, it was found that success rate for implants was 90%; meanwhile for bridges and dentures it was 50%. It was also found that when a bridge failed, supporting teeth had to be extracted or submitted to root canal treatment very often. The few times that implants failed, it only had to be changed, with no harm for the neighbor teeth.
e) Implants are more cost effective over time because although they have a higher initial cost their life expectancy, retrievability, immunity to disease processes and independence on other teeth make their long-term maintenance less expensive than conventional fixed bridges.
5. What is the purpose of using dental implants?
The main purpose of implants is to work as artificial roots that will hold the crowns placed instead of the lost teeth. Implants restorations fulfill three basic concepts:
- Function and esthetics: chewing, speaking and smiling can be done comfortably; they also provide lips support.
- To stop the bone resorption, since they stimulate the bone that holds them.
- To eliminate the overload of the remaining teeth that could appear if bridges were used.
Dental implants substitute the removable dentures for fixed teeth, improving the function and the aesthetics simultaneously.
They support the new crowns without the need of trimming the natural teeth, allowing us to chew with total comfort, and to smile and to speak with total security, for many years. The implant-supported crowns can be easily cleaned with dental floss.
7. Is age a limit for placing implants?
The age is not a decisive factor when being candidate for implants, but it is advisable not to use them before the 15 to 16 years of age, until the maxillary growth has completed. Older patients can receive implants as well as the young ones, with the same success rate.
8. Will the dental implants last a lifetime?
In medicine it is complex to say that a treatment is for a lifetime, specially being the teeth a tool that we use every day and in each moment that receive a lot of pressures and forces, and placed in a humid and very septic area (the mouth). Anyway, there are studies older than 35 years that show a very high success rate. The most recent studies say that 90% of the implants placed 10 years ago, are still working in the mouth today. It is much higher than the 50% success rate for ten-year periods described for tooth-supported bridges or dentures.
