Using Dental Implants To Replace Teeth

The use of dental implants, to replace lost teeth, is a testament to the resilience of a treatment method that has been around for thousands of years and has seen a new resurgence with better technology and the use of higher quality materials. In fact, dental implants are so successful that we are actually starting to change how people view losing a tooth and what their options are with replacements. It is ironic that we do not pay more attention to our teeth until they are lost. For most people, the idea of tooth loss is limited to people in their older age, a myth that often belays not taking great care of your teeth. The truth is that tooth loss affects people from all ages and all demographics. In fact, 69% of people over the age of 35 have lost at least one tooth and could use dental implants for a replacement. Teeth are critical for multiple functions. First, they are the starting place of all human digestion. Second, they are what we use to enunciate and form words and third, they are the foundation upon which we base certain social signals like smiling.

All of these make teeth critically important to modern human life. This makes it ironic that we are using a treatment that dates back thousands of years to the ancient Mayans. In the old days, the ancient Mayans would hammer pieces of bone or shell into a person's gums to give them new “fake teeth”. Today, we have divested with the hammers and the shells for modern materials and the benefits of medical science. However, the basic idea of replacing a lost tooth with an implant remains the same. The teeth we are able to place stably and securely today look and feel exactly like the natural teeth around them to the point where, after a while, even the user will forget that they have a fake tooth on a dental implant.

From a purely informational standpoint, it is interesting to note that NASA uses the same material to make space objects, including parts for the spacecraft, out of the same material as we use to fabricate your dental implants. Titanium is one of the most durable and strongest metals known to man today. It finds application in many places that require it to withstand tremendous strain, including the mouth. In addition to the strength this metal brings to the dental implants, it is also extremely bio-compatible, meaning that it fuses effortlessly with the bone for maximum stability. ?

The dental implants, which we place into your jaw, serve a dual purpose. First, they provide an anchor for your new fake teeth, also known as dental crowns, so that the teeth are stable and strong. Secondly, they provide the jaw itself with much needed stimulation, which under normal circumstances is provided by the root of the tooth. When the root is lost, this stimulation ceases, often leading to a deterioration of the quality and density of the bone mass in the jawbone. Dental implants help the jawbone to regain lost mass.