Morris County Dental Associates, a practice in Succasunna, NJ, congratulates Dr. Ira Goldberg for publishing a new article about same-day dental implants. The article about this tooth replacement treatment and procedure is included below. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Goldberg, you can contact the office online.
Same-Day Dental Implants with a Succasunna, NJ Dentist
Sounds too good to be true? Well, yes and no.
Let’s start with the basics. A dental implant is actually the anchor that goes into the jaw bone. It replaces the root of the tooth and has nothing to do with the tooth you see in your mouth. Think of it like an iceberg: there’s a good portion of it below the water that you can’t see, and then a smaller portion that you do see.
There are many things you can do with this implant. You can connect a single tooth to it, you can replace multiple non-removable teeth with a “bridge,” you can secure a removable denture to multiple implants (which you still take in and out of your mouth), or you can connect a full set of permanent teeth to multiple implants.
OK, so where does the “one day” come into play?
There are times where conditions are ideal so that an implant can be placed into your jawbone, and a tooth (known as a “crown” or “cap”) connected to it. Oftentimes, this is done in the front of the mouth, where esthetics are important. Just note this is a temporary crown and not your final crown. We usually do not do this for the back of the mouth, where esthetics are not as important. It is also important that you are gentle with this temporary crown. You do not want to use it for biting and chewing while the implant is healing.
However, if conditions are not ideal (such as the presence of an infection, the loss of bone, the need of gum grafting), implants cannot, or should not, be placed. This short-term inconvenience is soon forgotten once you receive your final crown. If you “push the biological limits,” mother nature can push back, and your implant/crown complex can fail. Oftentimes, you will be in a worse position than when you started.
“Implants In One Day” is most successful when you have “cross-arch stabilization.” This is when implants are utilized to replace a full arch of teeth (meaning the full upper jaw and/or the full lower jaw). The fact you have multiple implants in the front, back, left, and right that are connected with non-removable teeth provides an excellent healing environment for these implants. This is known as “splinting,” and it provides a very strong and rigid situation. In turn, the success rate of the implants and final prosthesis (teeth) is very high.
Caution should be used when applying these principles to a removable denture supported by dental implants. Removable dentures do not provide the rigidity created by cross-arch stabilization. A removable denture can actually weaken implants during their healing phase, and increase the risk of failure.
In our office, we perform a lot of implant procedures. Some are “immediate,” where a person receives a tooth on the same day of surgery, and some are “delayed,” where we will wait a period of time for proper healing. Other people will require bone grafting and/or gum grafting, to allow for a long-term, successful result. Not all situations are created equal, and consideration must be applied to each and every person.
One of the most popular services we perform is when a person receives “Implants In One Day.” In one appointment we can remove failing teeth, install multiple dental implants, and connect teeth (temporary teeth) to these implants. Patients walk out the door with a brand new smile. We perform this procedure regularly in our office, and satisfaction rates are incredibly high.
So, in summary, “Dental Implants In One Day” is a real thing: we do it all the time. However, remember the tooth (or teeth) you go home with will likely not be your final tooth, but rather a temporary one. Also, the other take-home message here is that not all situations are equal: an individual evaluation should be performed to determine if your condition is one that would be conducive towards a “same day tooth.”