Dental Implants – Farmington Hills, MI
A Top Solution for Replacing Missing Teeth
Dental implants haven’t been around as long as traditional bridges and dentures, yet they have already become a preferred method of tooth replacement in the eyes of many dentists and patients. A well-placed dental implant can re-complete your smile, improve your health, and enhance your quality of life in a variety of ways. Reach out to Radiant Dental today to set up an appointment if you’re interested in taking the first step toward getting dental implants in Farmington Hills.
Why Choose Radiant Dental for Dental Implants?
- Focused, Personalized Patient Experiences
- State-of-the-Art Dental Technology
- Personable Dentists and Staff
What Are Dental Implants?
By itself, you wouldn’t think a dental implant post could be used to re-complete your smile; it’s made out of titanium, and it looks more like a screw than a tooth. However, the post is actually meant to be surgically placed in the jaw to act as an artificial root. Then a personalized crown, bridge, or denture will be attached in order to act as your new teeth. Directly interfacing with your jawbone makes dental implants very different from the traditional tooth replacement options that you may be more familiar with.
The 4-Step Dental Implant Process
Receiving dental implants involves a specialized multi-step process that spans several months. While this may seem like a long time in comparison to traditional bridges and dentures, implants offer a wide range of fantastic benefits that make them well worth the effort. At Radiant Dental, our skilled team is trained and equipped to complete the entire implantation process in our office so patients won’t have to worry about seeing an outside oral surgeon who uses a different pricing structure. While each patient’s dental implant placement process is unique, here’s a quick look at how they are placed through the four important steps of consultation, surgery, osseointegration, and delivery of the final restoration.
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.
Benefits of Dental Implants
Year after year, dental implants are one of the most popular tooth-replacement options. In fact, recent research estimates that roughly 500,000 patients choose to rebuild their smiles with them each year! If you are considering doing the same, here are some of the many advantages they provide:
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 Dental Implants Can Help
You may want to think about having dental implants placed if you have either lost a tooth or expect to have a tooth extracted soon. Once we’ve made sure that you meet the criteria for dental implant surgery – such as having enough bone in your jaw – and have completed any necessary preliminary work, we can start planning your treatment. No matter how many teeth you’ve lost, we can fix your smile with the right number of dental implants and a carefully chosen restoration.
Missing One Tooth
Sometimes only one tooth is in need of replacement. We can fill the gap with a titanium dental implant post and a personalized dental crown. 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. There’s no need for us to worry about making adjustments to your remaining teeth when implants can give your bridge all the support it needs.
Missing All of Your Teeth
With dental implants, you can enjoy the benefits of full dentures without having to worry about them slipping out of place. 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.
Understanding the Cost of Dental Implants
When you get a single dental implant and crown, the amount you pay will be different compared to a patient who needs multiple implants and a denture. The factors that can potentially influence the overall cost of the dental implant process will be discussed during your initial consultation. Remember that dental implants last longer than other forms of tooth replacement, so they can often be a smart investment compared to traditional bridges and dentures.
