Toothaches: Cause, Remedies and Long-term Solutions

Posted on: 19 June 2018

If you have some serious dental issues, and you or your dentist have ruled out other options such as fixed bridges, removable dentures, or root canal therapy, dental implants might just be the thing for you. Over more than 50 years of development, dental implantation procedures are now more advanced than ever, but instead of just removing a tooth, for example, why should you get dental implants?

You'll Save Your Bite

In the cases of those other than your wisdom teeth, if a tooth is removed without replacement, it can often cause very serious malalignment problems. By replacing a removed tooth with a dental implant, this problem is avoided.

Your Usual Dentist May Be Qualified

Thanks to the procedure's recent rise in popularity, many general dentists are now qualified and able to perform dental implantation procedures. And more often than not, the procedure causes less trauma than tooth removal.

The Procedure Is Common Practice and Highly Streamlined

With the procedure so popular, it has become relatively safe and very streamlined, usually very similar to the following description. But first, prior to the procedure, your dentist will complete a full evaluation, often including CT scans or X-rays, and rule out possibly superior, alternative treatments and decide if the procedure is safe for you before creating a plan best suited to you.

The procedure itself is quite simple. To begin with, a local anaesthetic is usually used on the planned area to completely numb it. Then, the patient's gum tissue is cut and opened to reveal the underlying jawbone, in which a precise hole is drilled. The implant is then inserted into this hole and capped, before the previously opened gum tissue is then stitched back into place over it. The gum is left to heal as the implant integrates into the jawbone over several months.

After this wait, the dentist will reopen the gum, revealing implant. If the dentist's assessment of the implant proves positive, they will replace an internal component of the implant with a healing post, which widens and shapes the gum for the later attachment of the tooth, so it fits snugly inside a nest of gum tissue. After the patient's gum heals around the healing post, the abutment goes into the implant, which holds the later attached crown, bridge or denture in position.

Dental implants are a good option for replacing a missing tooth. Talk to your dentist for more information.