Dental Implants Richardson

What are Dental Implants?

Dental implants are comprised of two parts: the implant post and the implant restoration. The implant post is best described as an artificial “root” of the replacement tooth. Made out of titanium, it naturally fuses with the jawbone to provide proper support for the restoration. The implant restoration is the “crown,” or top, of the tooth and is attached to the implant to mimic a real tooth. The restoration itself is custom-made to match your smile and can be used with the same utility as a normal tooth.

The 4-Step Dental Implant Process

• Consultation & Treatment Planning: The first step of every dental implant treatment that we conduct is a thorough consultation with Dr. T or Dr. Parikh. After collecting any necessary diagnostic images of your mouth and facial structure, like a cone beam CT scan, they will sit down with you to discuss your treatment goals, candidacy, and outline what your unique process will look like. They will also thoroughly answer any questions you may have.
• Dental Implant Placement: Once you’ve consented to move forward with the recommended treatment plan, our front desk will schedule your dental implant placement surgery with Dr. T or Dr. Parikh. Or, if you require preparatory treatments like a bone graft, we can do that in-house too. As a Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists, Dr. T has completed over 100 hours of advanced training in dental implants, and with a skilled prosthodontist like Dr. Parikh on our team, you can rest assured you’ll receive exceptional results.
• Healing & Osseointegration: Following your surgery, you’ll undergo a lengthy healing period of between three and six months. During this time, not only will your gum tissue heal, but your implant posts will also fuse with your jawbone through a process called osseointegration. This is critical to the long-term success of your new replacement teeth.
• Attaching the Final Restorations: After attaching abutments (small metal connector pieces) to the tops of your dental implants, Dr. Parikh and Dr. T will bring you back into the office to secure the final restorations. This will complete your treatment and provide you with a newly revitalized smile that hopefully will last a lifetime!

Benefits of Dental Implants

Dental implants offer an incredibly wide array of benefits that make them a popular option for replacing missing teeth in Richardson. If you are considering them for yourself, then don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment at our office so we can determine if you’re a good candidate. Until then, you can read on to learn a few of the many reasons they are considered the gold standard in tooth replacement.

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Day-to-Day Benefits

Rebuilding your smile with dental implants can have a positive impact on your day-to-day life by:

• Boosting Your Self-Esteem – Unlike traditional restorations, dental implants will restore the entire structure of your missing teeth. Not only that, but the crown, bridge, or denture that’s secured on top will be custom-made to suit your unique dental needs and aesthetic goals. As a result, your new smile will look and feel extremely natural.
• Improving the Strength of Your Bite – With dental implants, you won’t have to worry about unexpected shifting or sliding. Plus, they can restore up to 80% of your original bite force. So, you won’t have to eat the same bland, boring foods all the time. Instead, you can eat a more varied, well-balanced diet.
• Restoring Your Normal Speaking Patterns – In order to form words, your tongue makes a series of distinct movements against the back of your teeth. So, you can see why it’s difficult to enunciate clearly without them! The good news is that dental implants can replace one, a few, or an entire arch of missing teeth.

Health Benefits

The benefits of dental implants in Richardson extend beyond day-to-day things. They can also have a positive impact on your oral and overall health by:

• Preventing Dental Drift – Unfortunately, even just one missing tooth can throw off the entire alignment of your bite. This, in turn, can lead to trouble chewing properly, premature wear, and other issues. The good news is that dental implants can help prevent dental drift by filling the open spaces in your smile.
• Allowing You to Eat More Nutrient-Dense Foods – As we mentioned above, dental implants restore the strength of your bite since they are crafted from only the best materials and get their strength from your jawbone. This makes it significantly easier to eat healthy, well-balanced meals that are filled with essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.
• Preserving Your Jawbone – While other tooth-replacement solutions can’t preserve your jawbone, dental implants can! That’s because they don’t rest against your gums or surrounding teeth. Instead, they are inserted into your jawbone, which ensures that it gets stimulated each time you chew.

Long-Term Benefits

Finally, patients and dentists alike love dental implants because they come with the following long-term benefits:

• Easy Maintenance – Some tooth-replacement solutions require special cleaning products. Dental implants, on the other hand, can be maintained with the same best practices that you use to care for your natural teeth, like flossing every night before you go to bed.
• High Success Rate – Dental implants have a success rate of over 95% for non-smoking patients. Starting at your initial consultation, we will share what you can do to avoid failure as well, starting with avoiding tobacco products.
• Long Lasting – In addition to all of this, dental implants are known to last for up to 20 years before the restoration attached to them needs to be replaced. However, this can vary based on your oral hygiene and lifestyle habits (i.e., whether you smoke, brush your teeth daily, and visit your dentist regularly).

Who Dental Implants Can Help

Whether you’re missing one, several, or all of your teeth, dental implants are an incredibly versatile treatment option. While they do require enough jawbone to support the successful osseointegration of the implant posts, our team at Richland Dental can help you navigate your candidacy for this treatment. In some cases, we may be able to recommend preliminary treatments like bone grafting or a sinus lift to help you get there.

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Missing One Tooth

Dr. Parikh and Dr. T can provide single-tooth dental implants to replace your missing tooth and restore your healthy smile. Single-tooth implants are long-lasting and highly stable, and they work to not only restore your smile but also improve your oral function and promote better long-term health.

Single-tooth dental implants have several advantages over other tooth replacement options. An implant can replace a tooth without disturbing the health and structure of any neighboring teeth, unlike a dental bridge. An implant will also replace the tooth root and integrate with the jawbone, stimulating it to keep the supporting bone healthy so that your teeth and implant can enjoy a stable foundation. Additionally, implants are easier to keep clean with regular brushing and flossing and provide a more aesthetically pleasing final result.

Dental implants are considered the best option for replacing missing teeth because they are designed to look, feel, and function exactly like your original teeth. When properly cared for with good oral hygiene and regular dental visits, they can last for a lifetime.

Missing Multiple Teeth

An implant bridge is similar to a regular dental bridge. However, while regular dental bridges are anchored with crowns placed on the teeth on either side of the bridge, an implant bridge is anchored in the mouth using dental implants. In most cases, an implant is placed for each missing tooth, after which the implant crowns are connected to form one piece atop the implant posts. If our dentists cannot place one implant for each missing tooth, the bridge may consist of prosthetic teeth suspended between two implant crowns.

Dr. Parikh and Dr. T may recommend an implant bridge when you have lost multiple teeth or when there is concern that you may put too much pressure on individual, unconnected implants, increasing the likelihood that the implant will loosen from the bone and fail. An implant bridge reduces this pressure, spreading it across the entire bridge to keep the individual implants firmly anchored in your jawbone, where they can work to improve your oral health and function.

Missing All Teeth

One or two entire arches of missing teeth can truly alter your life, making everyday tasks that should feel easy, like eating and speaking, much more emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting. Fortunately, our team at Richland Dental offers several solutions besides traditional dentures to restore the entirety of your smile, including Snap-On dentures and All-on-4 and All-on-6 implant dentures. You can read more about each of these treatments in greater detail by clicking on the links below.

Learn About All-on-4 Dental Implants
Learn About All-on-6 Dental Implants
Learn About Snap-On Dentures

Understanding the Cost of Dental Implants

While dental implants may have a higher up-front cost than traditional dentures and bridges, the advantages that they can offer are priceless, and they’re an investment that ultimately pays for itself with time. At your consultation, our team will break down the cost of your dental implants in Richardson with you and help determine whether any benefits offered by your dental insurance plan can be applied. We can also walk you through additional financing options, like low-interest monthly payment plans through CareCredit and Cherry.