What is the fuss about dental implants anyway? An insight into this life-altering teeth restoration program

We live in a world obsessed with looks, especially with the onslaught of social media, and with it the introduction of the selfie. We are now expected to look younger for longer..

While we at Spa Dental Sydney CBD believe that ageing is a natural process, there are specific aesthetically-focussed procedures that could improve your quality of life if you have missing teeth, for example, dental implants.

Why dental implants at Spa Dental Sydney CBD?

There are downsides to ageing which are not all too pleasant, one of them includes losing your teeth.

Losing one or multiple teeth might not be a life or death situation, but there are health and psychological implications in sporting a gummy mouth.

Luckily, with the advances in modern dentistry and the invention of artificial devices, such as dentures and bridges, losing one’s natural teeth is not the tragedy and embarrassment that it was once.

That said, both dentures and bridges have downsides that can make a wearer’s life inconvenient at times and may not last a life time.

Over time, dentures stop fitting well and slip out, which can be embarrassing if you are in the middle of speaking or eating. While you can enjoy a good 10 to 15 years wearing them, dentures eventually need to be replaced.

On the other hand, permanent bridges might not dislodge at an inopportune moment, but they do require the filing down of surrounding teeth, thus altering their natural state.

Dental implants do none of the above. The screws making up an implant are embedded into the jaw and rely on a process, osseointegration, that fuses metal to the jawbone. There is then no real way of removing the device, unless professionally by our implant dentist.

At the same time, the screw, small in size, is placed where your old tooth stood, thus helping to preserve your surrounding pearly whites.

Are implants suitable for everyone?

Our success rate of implants is high, and that is partly due to the strict health criteria in place at Spa Dental Sydney CBD. For implantation to work, you have to have healthy gums and enough jawbone to fit the screw.

Unfortunately, one side-effect of not replacing your missing teeth with implants initially is that your jawbone deteriorates from lack of use. Wearing dentures will not combat this issue because your teeth, unlike using implants, are not replaced at the root of the lost tooth. The consequences of this are that the movement of the tooth which kept the bone stimulated, is gone, resulting in bone loss. Often people who have worn dentures in the past and want to switch to implants also face this problem.

But wait, are there other options we have not discussed?

A standard dental implant might be the solution for a person who is missing one or a few teeth but is not beneficial with regards to cost for those who have lost a substantial number of their teeth over the years or who suffer from severe tooth decay.

All-on-4 is a multiple tooth implant option that can replace upper and lower sets of teeth using 4 implants without you needing the required bone. The front implants are placed in areas where there is bone, while the posterior implants are tilted at an angle, meaning that less bone is needed to embed the implant.

All treatment carries risks. Individual consultation is required with one of our practitioners to ensure that the treatment is right for you.