A dental implant, surgically placed into the jawbones, is actually a replacement for the root or roots of a tooth and made of titanium. Not only do dental implants replace missing teeth, but they also help maintain the function and the aesthetics of missing teeth. A dental implant is essentially a titanium screw, which is lightweight, strong and biocompatible, which means that it is not rejected by the body. Thus, the bone grows into the screw threads and the implant is fixed in the jawbones. Dental implants are used to replace missing teeth in a variety of situations ranging from the missing single tooth to complete edentulous.

Dental implants are composed of three parts: 1) implant body, 2) Abutment part, 3) Crown. Information about abutment and crown parts can be found under “Implant Supported Fixed Crowns & Custom Implants”. Under this heading, the part “implant body” is examined.

 

After the placement of the dental implant, prostheses can be performed immediately or when the implant is fused with the bone. However, when prosthesis is applied after the implant and bone has fully fused , the success rate is much higher. The bone fusion of the dental implant requires a time period of 2-5 months. If Bone Grafts & Sinus Lifting Procedure is needed, an additional of 6 months is added to the waiting time. During this period, Temporary Dentures and Deflex®/Valplast® Dentures are inserted on the edentulous regions to replace missing teeth.

 

The advantages of dental implants:

- The chewing efficiency of prosthesis over implants is close to the chewing efficiency of natural teeth,

- By using implants, treatment of a missing tooth can be achieved without causing the erosion of its healthy neighbor.

- Chewing forces on the bone-fused implants have a stimulating effect on the jawbones, which prevents bone resorption,

- Surrounding teeth to the missing tooth tend to close the gap by tooth movements. While adjacent teeth tilt over the gap area, antagonist teeth extend into the gap. These unwanted tooth movements to the gap areas are prevented by dental implant treatments,

- With the dental implant treatment, a fixed prosthesis can be applied to the patients that have no chance for a fixed prosthesis with their remaining teeth,

- Aesthetics and durability of the crowns over implants are as good as the crowns over natural teeth,

- Other advantages of dental implants are analyzed under the heading of “Implant Supported Removable Dentures”.

Keywords: implant, jawbone, titanium, abutment, crown, jaw, edentulous, fixed prosthesis, custom implant, bone graft, denture, sinus lifting, bone resorption