Dental implants offer an excellent solution for anyone with missing teeth. There are many factors that can cause your teeth to become excessively damaged and loose. This could lead to teeth breaking or even falling out completely! Regardless of the reasons why you need dental work, you want a treatment plan that gives you the most natural looking smile, ensuring each tooth is blended with the next. Dental implants do just that and can be entirely unrecognizable from your natural teeth!
Dental implant procedures are known for being rather complex, with many appointments required before the final outcome is seen. As such, you must pick the right type of dentist for your treatment plan. If some are more equipped to handle this task than others – how do you choose the best one?
Understanding Dental Implants
To figure out which dentists are best-suited for this procedure, you have to understand how dental implants work. There are many steps involved in the process of fitting a dental implant. From removing the tooth to making a mold, there is also a lot of special technology at play here. Whatever dentist you choose, they must have the experience and equipment necessary to not only get the job done, but do it well enough to give you back your smile. So, what are dental implants, and how exactly do they work?
While the procedure is complicated, the premise behind dental implants is straightforward. The implant itself refers to a metal post/frame that is surgically inserted into your jawbone. It goes beneath your gums and will act as a supporting structure for a replacement tooth. Effectively, the implant mimics a tooth’s root, securing the crown in place within the mouth. There are many benefits of dental implants when compared to other tooth-replacement methods. The key ones being that they last far longer and prevent further tooth loss by preventing bone resorption (the loss of bone.)
You will generally see two types of dental implants performed by dentists across the country: endosteal or subperiosteal. We don’t need to go into too much detail on the differences; they serve the same purpose but offer different techniques when placing the metal posts. Obviously, it takes time for the gums to heal after having oral surgery to insert implants. When your mouth is ready, you will have a crown placed onto the post, creating your false tooth.
Having read all of this, you will start to pinpoint a few key factors that tell you what type of dentists are best for dental implants. Let’s take a closer look…
Oral Surgery Experience
The main aspect of dental implants treatment revolves around a surgical procedure. Your gums need to be opened up and prepared for a metal post to be surgically inserted down below the gum line. Depending on the type of implants used, this post is either directly fused to the bone or set on the bone to fuse later. Of course, the site will need to be cleaned up and prepared to heal afterward.
Therefore, choosing a dentist with training and experience in oral surgery will be highly beneficial. They will know the correct techniques and can insert implants with more confidence. Also, you should bear in mind that many implant procedures start with tooth extractions. Some patients have heavily damaged teeth that are going to fall out if left in the mouth for much longer. Or, they’re so badly damaged/diseased that they need to be extracted before they cause more pain and create an infection. Again, oral surgery experience allows your dentist to extract these teeth in a matter of seconds.
It’s worth noting that a lot of oral surgeons will specialize in dental implants, so that’s another bonus. With so much surgical work involved in the placement of these metal posts, it seems rash to choose a dentist that hasn’t undergone surgical training.
Periodontal Experience
Similarly, periodontists will sometimes specialize in dental implants. What is a periodontist? Well, it’s a dentist that’s done extra training in the periodontal field. In essence, periodontology is all about the treatment, prevention, and diagnosis of periodontal disease. Or, in simpler terms, gum disease. The focus is on your gums and understanding how to treat them and keep them healthy.
Consequently, periodontists are well-equipped to handle dental implants as the gums play a vital role in the procedure. For starters, this treatment can’t be carried out if periodontal disease is present. It won’t allow the implants to be successful because the gums are too inflamed or have receded too far back. So, many treatments begin with periodontal treatment plans to improve the health of your gums. From here, the surgery can begin.
As the gums are such a vital aspect of dental implants, it makes sense to seek a dentist with periodontal training. While there’s technically no laws stating a dentist needs to be trained in oral surgery or periodontics, it will undoubtedly help you feel more confident and lead to better results.
Dental Implants Experience
Finally, you should also look for dentists that have genuine experience dealing with dental implants. The above points are crucial, but this is perhaps the deciding factor. A dentist that has inserted many dental implants will feel confident in their abilities. You can look at their previous work to see how successful the treatments have been. It leaves you with far more confidence that your treatment will go smoothly and result in excellent implants.
By contrast, it’s unwise to seek out a dentist that has never performed this procedure in their life. We appreciate that everyone has to start from somewhere. Still, you take a significant risk by being someone’s first implant patient. This tends to be one of the more expensive dental procedures out there, so you need to make a wise investment. It makes far more sense to choose a dentist with actual dental implant experience.
How do I find a Dentist Near Me for Implants?
After considering the above factors, you’re probably looking for dentists that offer implants in your local area. If you live in the Eastpointe area, we here at Patient Empowered Dentistry can provide you with exceptional implants at our dental office. Dr. Dyki and his team will book you in for a consultation to understand your current situation. From here, you’ll be in the safe hands of an implant specialist that will provide the treatment for you. Feel free to get in touch today to schedule your initial appointment!
