Dental Implants – Farmington Hills, MI

Initial Dental Implant Consultation

During your consultation, Dr. Saywa will evaluate your mouth to determine whether dental implants are right for you. A suitable candidate will be in good oral health and have strong jawbones, so some patients may have to receive restorative work to address oral infections or bone grafts to reinforce their jaws before they can qualify for implants. When the patient is ready, we’ll be happy to schedule them for dental implant surgery at our office and walk them through their treatment timeline and the associated costs.

Dental Implant Surgery

There’s no need for us to refer you to a separate practice for this step; we can handle the surgery right here in our Farmington Hills dental office. Dr. Saywa will begin the process by administering an appropriate anesthetic to ensure your comfort. Then, she will make small incisions in the gum tissue, place the implants in the jawbone, and close the surgical wounds around them. She will also place protective caps on top of the new implants.

Dental Implant Osseointegration & Abutment

Your dental implants will gradually fuse with your jawbone through the natural process of osseointegration, creating the sturdy foundation they need to function like real teeth and last for decades with proper care. This process takes several months to complete. Afterward, you’ll come back to our office for a minor surgical procedure so we can attach an abutment piece to each post. These abutments will allow your restorations to be securely anchored to your dental implants.

Delivery of Dental Implant Restoration(s)

After you have fully healed from your abutment surgery, you’ll come back to our office so we can fix your customized crown, bridge, or denture in place. After we check your bite and make any final adjustments, you’ll be ready to show off your gorgeous new smile.

Day-to-Day Benefits

Whether you replace one tooth or an entire arch of teeth with dental implants, you can expect several improvements to your day-to-day life, including:

• You can enjoy a wide variety of foods – Even a relatively small gap in your smile can restrict your diet. In fact, many patients who are struggling with tooth loss are left with only one choice: to eat the same bland, boring foods on repeat. Fortunately, dental implants can restore the strength of your bite, allowing you to eat all of your favorites again.
• It’s easy to maintain a healthy smile – With dental implants, you don’t need to worry about adopting a cumbersome oral hygiene regimen or buying special cleaning products. Simply incorporate the same habits you did to take care of your natural teeth, like brushing twice a day and coming to our office for a checkup and cleaning twice a year.
• You can enunciate clearly – Oftentimes, patients with traditional dentures find it difficult to enunciate clearly, particularly if they don’t fit well. Since dental implants are secured to your jawbone, you don’t have to worry about them slipping or moving unexpectedly. So, you can chat with your loved ones without feeling self-conscious!

Health Benefits

In addition to being able to directly benefit your everyday life in a variety of ways, dental implants can also improve your oral health in the long term. Here’s how:

• Prevent dental drift – Following tooth loss, it’s very normal for the teeth surrounding the gap to move out of place. Although this may not seem like a huge deal, it can have a negative impact on the alignment of your bite. The good news is that dental implants can replace any number of teeth, giving you a complete, strong, and healthy smile.
• Your healthy teeth don’t need to be altered – Some tooth-replacement solutions, like dental bridges, require the teeth surrounding the gap to be altered. That’s not the case with dental implants because they are self-supporting.
• Better overall health – Tooth loss is linked to low self-esteem as well as an increased risk of several diseases. So, rebuilding your smile with dental implants has the potential to benefit your oral and overall health.

Long-Term Benefits

In addition to the fact that dental implants are the only tooth-replacement solution that can help prevent bone loss, patients love that they have a long lifespan. In fact, while other smile-rebuilding solutions can last for 5-7 years, dental implants can last for well over a decade. That’s why they are often the best choice for your smile and your wallet in the long run!

Who Is a Good Candidate for Dental Implants?

In order to determine if you’re a good candidate for dental implants, we need to review your medical history, take X-rays, complete a visual exam, and learn about your day-to-day routine. In the process, we will determine:

• If your jawbone can support dental implants
• If your gums are free of infection
• If any remaining teeth you have are healthy
• If you’re willing to break harmful habits, like smoking

Once we have all of this information, we can determine if dental implants are the ideal tooth-replacement solution for you or if preliminary care is needed before we can move forward with the procedure, like gum disease treatment.

Missing One Tooth

Sometimes only one tooth is in need of replacement. If that’s the case for you, then we will likely recommend a single dental implant! In this case, we fill the gap with a titanium dental implant post and secure a personalized dental crown on top. Much like the crowns placed on your teeth, implant crowns can be customized to be as lifelike as possible, making them virtually indistinguishable from the rest of your smile.

Missing Multiple Teeth

The idea of losing multiple teeth in a row can be an alarming one, but oftentimes we can solve the problem with just two dental implant posts and a dental bridge. Not only will the final result be extremely lifelike, but there’s no need to make adjustments to your teeth in the process.

You might be wondering if dental implants are still an option if you are missing several teeth throughout your mouth. The short answer is “yes.” We can use a few strategically placed dental implants to secure a partial denture in position as well.

Missing All Teeth

If you don’t have any of your natural teeth left, you might be wondering how dental implants work. In some cases, we may be able to restore your smile with the All-on-4 procedure; this treatment can be completed with just four dental implant posts, and in some cases, you may be able to have new teeth placed on the same day as your surgery. If you are interested in learning more about this solution, including the benefits that come with it, then take the next step: contact our Farmington Hills dental team.