Dental Implants

Dream Dental Sedation surgically places and restores our own implants. Sometimes the risks of placing the implant near vital structures within the bone are very high, or the implant site may require extensive grafting prior to placement.

Implants can be placed at the time of extraction (immediate placement), barring an infection or significant loss of bone. Or they can be placed four to six months after socket preservation is done, which is the traditional route. We can provide both implant procedures; however, we always try to do immediate placement as it saves four to six months of healing and can better preserve the soft tissue profile that used to exist around the natural tooth.

Although there are other tooth replacement options available like dental bridges and dentures, the reasons why dental implants are the regarded as the best standard of care are numerous.

• Implant restorations are fixed in place, and not loose, like dentures
• Implants preserve bone like teeth and resist bone shrinkage, which can make you look older
• Dental implants allow for restorations that look, feel, and behave like natural teeth
• Dental implants enable you to chew, smile, talk, and look completely natural, which instills social, psychological, and physical well-being

When taken care of, implants are the best long-term solution for replacement of missing teeth and provide similar esthetics and function as the natural teeth they replace. While there are other procedures that can be done to replace a missing tooth, these options usually involve reducing the size of the teeth next to missing tooth space and placing a bridge between the prepped teeth, or taking something in and out of your mouth such as a partial denture.

After the implant procedure and a healing period of four to eight months, the bone will “ankylose” into the threads of the implant, and the implant will become rigidly anchored into the bone (also known as osseointegration). After a set healing period, the implant is uncovered and an implant-retained crown can be screwed internally into the implant. The fully restored implant looks and acts like a tooth — almost like it was never gone.