Dental Implants
Dental implants are a great way to replace missing or hopeless teeth. They are a wonderful tool to your dental team to help preserve your bite, tooth position and esthetics. They are titanium root form bodies that in a matter of weeks fuse to the bone through a process called “Osseointegration”. After an initial healing phase the implants are ready to restore with a crown or other component called an “abutment” to help support multiple missing teeth or even an entire arch of missing teeth. Dental implant restorations consist of 2-3 components, the implant (titanium body) that is placed into the bone and later some form of restoration, an “abutment” and usually a crown. Dental implant technology is one of the fastest growing and highly researched areas of dentistry. Modern implant dentistry can be complex so the use of computers is utilized to aid in predictability and lends to less invasive treatment for the patient. We use CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography) to map out both dental arches. This guides us to avoid important structures like nerves and blood vessels, however, most importantly it allows us to gain knowledge of the bone shape and volume. Once we map the jaws we then place our implants virtually and lock them into place by creating a 3D printed surgical guide that is used in the actual surgery to ensure precision, reduce errors and improve healing. This entire process is known as “guided surgery”. Our team has placed every implant for the last 3 years utilizing this workflow for predictable outcomes and treatment for our patients.