Dental Implants: How Can They Improve Your Oral Health and Smile?

Dental implant treatment is a lasting way to change one or more missing teeth caused by disease or injury. It involves using dental implants (metal posts), often made of titanium, to act as roots for your artificial teeth. This way, you can have steady, functional, and natural-looking teeth.

Ways Dental Implants Improve Your Oral Health

The following are some ways dental implants can improve your oral health:

1. They Help Preserve Jawbone

Dental implants promote the jawbone by acting as a root for an artificial tooth. This stimulation encourages the jawbone to stay strong, preventing it from weakening over time.

2. They Improve Your Bite

Replacing missing teeth with dental implants can improve how you bite and chew food, making eating easier and more pleasurable. They are designed to imitate natural teeth, matching your bite quickly and firmly without affecting other teeth or causing pain when biting down. This makes them more comfortable than dentures, which usually slip around and cause discomfort or irritation.

3. They Help Prevent Dental Cavities

Having tooth gaps makes it harder to keep your teeth clean, increasing the risk of tooth decay, cavities, and other oral health issues. With dental implants, you can brush and floss like normal, reducing the risk of these concerns.

How Dental Implants Improve Your Smile

Missing teeth can be unappealing when you talk, smile, or laugh. Dental implants from facilities like Dedicated Dental Studios of Poughkeepsie can enhance your smile by providing a natural-looking and sturdy replacement for missing teeth. Unlike removable dentures, you don’t need to stress over them slipping out of place or being visible when you talk or smile, which many people find uncomfortable.

Also, the metal posts used in dental implant treatment are designed to blend in with your natural teeth and look indistinguishable from real teeth.

How Dental Implant Procedure Is Done

Here’s what you can expect to happen during your dental implant treatment:

  • Initial consultation. During this session, your dentist will talk about the treatment plan and ensure you meet the candidacy requirements for dental implants. They will also do X-rays and other essential tests to analyze your teeth, jawbone, and gums. At this stage, ask about all your issues, including the expenses and payment plans. You can get more information here.
  • Additional procedures. Before your implant surgery, your dentist will perform additional treatments, such as sinus lift, bone graft, and tooth extractions (see tooth extractions on the web for more details), if necessary.
  • Dental implant surgery. Your dentist will begin the surgery by administering local anesthesia. Sometimes they also offer sedatives or general anesthesia, depending on an individual’s case. Then they’ll make an incision in the gum to access the jawbone. After preparing the implant site, they insert the metal post and close the incision with stitches.
  • Recovery time. During this phase, your dental implant will require time to fuse with the jawbone, called osseointegration. This process can take up to five months, and your dentist will monitor it through X-rays or CT scans.
  • Attaching the abutment and restoring the teeth. After the implant has successfully merged with your jawbone, your dentist will attach an abutment to it and put your replacement tooth/teeth over it to restore your tooth’s function and appearance.

While it’s generally safe, dental implant treatment is an invasive procedure requiring minor surgery. That’s why you should choose a reputable center with experienced dental experts, such as Dedicated Dental Studios of Poughkeepsie. You may click here to see their services. Your dentist must also use cutting-edge equipment and materials to ensure a positive outcome.