Dental implantation means placing an artificial tooth in place of a missing one. It reproduces the structure of a natural tooth and fully restores function and aesthetics.
An implant is placed in the jawbone where a tooth is missing or has been removed, and it acts as the tooth root. The implant is made of a material that integrates with the bone to form a single tissue. Implants can replace one tooth, or four, five and even thirty-two teeth. However, it is not always necessary to place as many implants as there are missing teeth, because implants withstand greater chewing loads for longer than natural teeth.
An implant consists of three main parts:
- An artificial titanium root that integrates into the bone.
- The implant abutment, which connects the artificial crown to the titanium root.
- The implant’s artificial crown.
Stages of dental implant placement:
- Planning: The most important stage is placing the implant correctly. The bone needs to be examined with 3D images. Bone thickness and the condition of the gums are important. A general health check is also needed. Chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, can be an obstacle to implantation.
- Placement: To achieve an aesthetic result, the specialist must place the implant so that the gum forms correctly around it. This gives an aesthetic result, because an artificial crown only looks natural when the gum is shaped correctly.
- Integration: A few months after placement, the implant integrates with the bone.
- Abutment placement: This is done after the implant has integrated with the bone, so that a crown can be fitted to it.
- Making, fitting and cementing the crown: The patient should be told how important hygiene and regular dental visits are. Harmful habits (e.g. tobacco use) can seriously damage an implant. Losing a tooth is a significant loss, not only for appearance, but also for health and a confident smile. It also limits a person’s social life. Losing a significant number of teeth also leads to bone loss, which over time causes premature changes in facial expression. In many cases, the defects can be restored with dentures. This leads to incorrect distribution of chewing forces in the mouth and, as a result, the bone is lost even faster. All these problems can be solved at our clinic by a professional implantologist, periodontist and prosthodontist.
