Dental Implants – Mesquite, TX
A Long-Lasting Way to Replace Teeth
Are you tired of dentures that always seem to be in need of adjustment and won’t stop slipping out of place? Or are you thinking about getting a dental bridge but don’t really want to make permanent changes to your remaining teeth? Nowadays, when it comes to restoring your smile by replacing teeth, dental implants are the new gold standard; call Dr. Aldana or Dr. Vazquez at Dental Impressions today to learn more about the process and whether it might be right for you!
Why Choose Dental Impressions for Dental Implants?
- Convenient In-House Placement
-
Personal Touch for
Every Patient - Dentist Skilled in Restorations
How Do Dental Implants Work?
After an initial consultation and necessary prep work (which might involve restoring lost tissue in the jaw via a bone graft), you’ll undergo surgery to receive dental implants. A number of titanium posts (the exact number depending on the extent of tooth loss) will be placed into the jaw. As the mouth heals, the bone itself will integrate with the implants, effectively turning them into artificial roots that can support an appropriate number of prosthetic teeth.
The 4 Step Dental Implant Process
To provide their unique benefits, dental implants require a unique process. Unlike traditional options like dentures or a dental bridge, rebuilding your smile with dental implants takes place over several stages and multiple months. While this may seem like a long time, their long-term benefits are well-worth the wait! While every patient’s dental implant treatment plan will look slightly different, there are typically four steps you can expect: the consultation, implant surgery, osseointegration, and delivery of dental implant restoration.
Initial Dental Implant Consultation
Your first step on your journey towards a complete smile is to come visit us for a consultation. During this first visit, Dr. Aldana or Dr. Vazquez will take the time to discuss your goals for your smile, review your medical history, and inspect your teeth and gums. Then, she’ll go over her findings with you and fully explain your tooth replacement options and her recommendations.
Sometimes, a patient will need to complete preliminary treatments like bone grafting, periodontal therapy, or a tooth extraction before moving forward with their dental implant treatment. While these services will make getting dental implants take a little longer, they’re necessary to maximize your chances of successful treatment. Once your smile is healthy, we can move on to replacing your teeth.
Dental Implant Surgery
Placing dental implants is a precise surgical procedure, so many other dentists need to refer their patients to local surgeons for this step. But that’s not the case here at Dental Impressions! Thanks to Drs. Aldana and Vazquez’s years of experience and advanced training in dental implants, she has become a master of rebuilding beautiful, healthy smiles.
During your surgery, she’ll first numb the area to make sure you’re as comfortable as possible. Then, she’ll make a small incision in the gums to reach your jawbone. The dental implant post is inserted directly into your jaw at predetermined places, and then the gums are sutured back together. A small protective cap will be placed over the implant post to shield it and maintain the natural shape of your gums during the healing process.
Dental Implant Osseointegration & Abutment
Next, the dental implant post will undergo a process called osseointegration. This is where the titanium post fuses with the surrounding bone tissue to essentially become a part of your jaw. Since this is a very gradual process, it will typically take somewhere between four and six months of healing before you can move on to the next step. While this is certainly a long time, this process is what will provide your new tooth or teeth unmatched functionality, comfort, and stability. Not to mention, osseointegration is what helps your dental implant stay in place for life with the right care!
Once you’ve healed enough, you may need one more minor surgery. This is to place the abutments if they weren’t placed during your initial surgery. It will only take a few weeks to recover and then you’ll be ready for the last step of your dental implant treatment.
Delivery of Dental Implant Restorations
When we receive your custom-made crown, bridge, or denture, you’ll return to our office once again. We’ll securely fasten your final restoration in place on top of the implant post via the abutment. We’ll ensure that your bite feels comfortable and that you’re pleased with your results, and then you’ll be ready to show off your new, complete set of pearly whites!
Benefits of Dental Implants
Although implants aren’t right for everyone, we often encourage our patients to replace their missing teeth with implants more than with other solutions. Why are dental implants so widely recommended? The answer, of course, lies in the wide array of benefits that they offer. Their nature-imitating structure gives implants several advantages over traditional dentures and bridges, including increased stability, more durability, and a younger looking facial structure. When you take into account everything implants provide, you can quickly find that they are well worth the investment.
Day-to-Day Benefits
If you’ve spent even one day wearing traditional dentures, you know how tedious it can be. Although modern dentures are more comfortable than ever, they still don’t compare to the natural feeling of implants. Dentures can easily slip out place while you’re eating or talking, possibly affecting your confidence, and the daily care of dentures requires significantly more steps than regular oral care. With implants, you don’t have to adjust the way you speak or chew or maintain your smile. You can treat these dental prosthetics just like real teeth! In addition, with implants you don’t have to worry about getting that old, sunken look that is common amongst those who suffer tooth loss.
Health Benefits
When a tooth is lost, it affects more than just your appearance. The root is no longer there to stimulate bone growth in the jaw, leading to bone deterioration over time, which in turn causes a weaker bite. As a result, those who wear dentures tend to have about 25 percent of the biting strength they had before. Unfortunately, dentures and bridges alone do not stop this process from happening. Dental implants, on the other hand, do! They act just like real tooth roots and keep the jawbone strong and stimulated, restoring about 70 percent of your biting strength and allowing you to continue enjoying a healthy, balanced diet.
Long-Term Benefits
Did you know that people who wear traditional dentures tend to have a shorter lifespan? Studies indicate that eating fibrous, healthy foods like vegetables can help you stay strong and well-nourished as you age, but doing so with dentures and a weak bite can be difficult to say the least. As a result, those with dentures tend to live about 10 years shorter than those who have a full set of teeth. However, when you replace your teeth with dental implants, it’s as if you still have your natural, durable smile, meaning you can more easily eat the foods that keep you healthy.
One of the most amazing traits of dental implants is their longevity. Instead of having to be adjusted or replaced every few years like regular dentures and bridges, implant restorations can last for several decades! As a result, many patients with implants find that this treatment actually helps them save money in the long run.
Who Dental Implants Can Help
Patients that have either experienced tooth loss or expect to have teeth extracted in the near future should consider dental implants as a solution. Your gums will need to be free of infection before the surgery, and we’ll need to confirm that there’s enough bone in your jaw to support the posts; such issues will need to be addressed during an initial consultation. You will get a different number of implants depending on your needs.
Missing Single Tooth
On its own, an implant post can replace a single tooth. It normally takes about 4 to 6 months for the mouth to completely heal and join with the post. After that, a connector called an abutment is placed on the implant. An abutment is what will eventually hold your new crown in place.
Missing Multiple Teeth
Instead of removing small amounts of enamel from natural teeth to make room for a bridge, we can replace three or more teeth in a row with a pair of dental implants. Each implant will support a crown, and an appropriate number of false teeth will fill in the gap between them.
Missing All Teeth
About 4 to 8 dental implants are normally needed to support full dentures. When held in place by implants, dentures can simply be brushed and flossed as though they were natural teeth, and they can be used to bite and chew even tough foods that would normally give you trouble.
Understanding the Cost of Dental Implants
It’s important to figure out roughly how much your dental implants will cost as early as possible in the process. While we examine your mouth during your initial consultation, we’ll consider the number of implants you’ll need, the type of restoration required, and the individual steps of the implant process. Once we’ve figured out how much you can expect to pay, we can discuss using insurance or other financing options to keep your out-of-pocket costs to a minimum. Although the cost of dental implants in Mesquite is higher than that of other forms of tooth replacement, they are a worthwhile investment that can provide you with decades of benefits.
Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery
Many patients require gum disease therapy, tooth extractions, or a bone graft before they qualify for dental implants in Mesquite. Each of these services comes with its own fee.
The dental implant surgery has a separate price, which depends on things like the number of implants being placed and the type of sedation used. Since we are able to perform this complex procedure right here in our office, we can provide you with a candid price estimate right from the beginning. You won’t have to worry about dealing with the financial policies of an outside specialist.
The Parts of Your Dental Implant
Not all dental implant treatments are the same. Implants come in various sizes and may be made out of different materials. They also come from a range of manufacturers. Additionally, there are various techniques that can be used in implant procedures. All of these factors have a bearing on your procedure’s overall cost. Your restoration (the crown, bridge, or denture on top of your implants) has a separate price that depends on its size and the materials used to make it.
How Dental Implants Can Save You Money
Dental implants cost more upfront than traditional forms of tooth replacement. However, they offer an excellent value. They last for decades, a fact that may make them cheaper in the long run than regular dentures, which typically have to be replaced every 5 – 7 years or so. Also, because dental implants protect your oral health, they can spare you from having to pay for treatment to address things like gum sores and jawbone deterioration.
Does My Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?
Some dental insurance plans cover dental implants, while others do not. You’ll have to look at your specific policy to see how it applies. Even if it doesn’t cover the implants themselves, it is likely to cover other portions of your procedure, such as preliminary treatments or your final restoration. Our practice is happy to help you navigate your benefits and file your claims. We are even in-network with several major plans. Contact us today to find out how we can work with your insurance.
Making Dental Implants Affordable
As your implant dentist in Mesquite, we want you to be able to afford your new smile! In addition to assisting you with insurance, we can also help you save on treatment by:
- Assisting you with financing. We are partnered with CareCredit and Lending Club to provide low-interest monthly payment plans for dental implants. Most patients are approved for credit through at least one of these financiers.
- Signing you up for our in-house savings plan. In exchange for a reasonable annual fee, our in-practice discount plan can lower your out-of-pocket costs for many services.
- Offering great specials. You can get a full-arch implant denture for as little as $9,999 or a single implant for as little as $999.
Dental Implant Failure and Salvage
When getting dental implants, it’s important to know what to do in the unlikely event that something goes wrong. In rare circumstances, your implant posts might fail, which is a situation that warrants scheduling an appointment with your dentist as soon as you can. Our team can figure out what went wrong with your dental implants and give you an overview of your treatment options. We’ll aim to save your implant posts whenever possible, although in certain cases they may need to be removed (and possibly replaced later).
Learn More About Dental Implant Failure and Salvage
Maintaining & Caring for Your Dental Implants
Ultimately, dental implants could keep your smile full and healthy for a lifetime. You’d then get to enjoy all their perks! Still, a long implant lifespan depends on proper care. These prosthetic teeth will fail early if they aren’t maintained with good practices. Luckily, we at Dental Impressions are here to help: listed below are some tips on dental implant care in Mesquite. By following them, you’ll experience implants’ many benefits for years to come.
Make Oral Hygiene a Priority
Indeed, implants can’t (and don’t) suffer cavities. They’re made of artificial materials instead of enamel. However, it’s still crucial that you clean them daily.
You see, implants are adjacent to your natural teeth and gums. That means the latter grouping’s issues can spread to the former. Gum disease, for instance, could spread from an implant to loosen and fail. The condition can erode the tissue supporting your prosthetic tooth.
Given all these facts, you should make oral care a priority. Tooth or gum issues will affect your implants if you don’t. Therefore, brush twice daily, floss once daily, and rinse with mouthwash often.
Eat a Healthy Diet
While implants let you chew many foods, there are some they can’t handle. If possible, then, follow a mouth-healthy diet in the future.
There are various food categories you’d best avoid. One is the hard type, which includes items like pretzels and nuts; it chips restorations. In contrast, sticky and sugary stuff wedge between implants and decay nearby teeth.
In contrast, foods with mouth-healthy nutrients help implants last. Fruits, veggies, lean proteins, and leafy greens are especially good. Foods with calcium, phosphorus, and similar compositions prevent gum disease and strengthen your jaw.
Break Bad Habits
Bad oral habits can hurt your implant if you’re not careful. As such, try to quit them as best you can before visiting the dentist.
For instance, smoking tobacco raises your risk of gum disease. That condition, in turn, can slow or even reverse implant fusion. It’ll even result in implant failure in most cases.
You shouldn’t chew on hard items, either. This habit chips implants, even if the bitten object is organic.
Protect Your Dental Implants
Implants are durable, but they aren’t indestructible. They can suffer damage if you aren’t careful. As such, you’ll need to protect them with the right tools.
An ideal approach for this protection is wearing an oral appliance. A mouthguard for sports would prevent implant damage due to collisions. Similarly, a nightguard for sleep protects implants from tooth grinding.
Schedule Regular Dental Checkups
Generally, dentists suggest that you get checkups and cleanings every six months. These regular dental visits address problems your home care might miss.
Thankfully, a checkup’s preventive dentistry stops potential threats to your implants. Checkups, after all, let a dentist assess your oral health and spot problems early. The result is that your small dental issues won’t put your implants at risk.
Dental Implants FAQs
Dental implants in Mesquite are a long-lasting way to replace missing teeth and regain your complete, confident smile. This unique tooth replacement option is quite different from more traditional methods like dentures and dental bridges, so it’s natural to have a few questions. For your convenience, we’ve gathered some of the most common dental implant FAQs below so you can learn more. If you don’t see the answers you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to give us a call!
Am I A Good Candidate for Dental Implants?
No matter how many teeth you’re missing, dental implants can help! However, you’ll need to have a few things to be considered a good candidate, including:
- Good general health: Placing dental implants is a surgical procedure, so you’ll need to be healthy enough for minor surgery.
- Great oral health: Issues like tooth decay and gum disease can cause your dental implant to fail, so these problems will need to be treated first.
- Adequate jawbone density: If your jawbone isn’t strong enough to support the dental implant post, you may need to complete a bone graft to ensure your treatment is successful.
Do I Need to See a Specialist to Have My Dental Implants Placed?
At Dental Impressions, you won’t need to see an unfamiliar specialist to have your dental implants placed. Thanks to advanced training and state-of-the-art technology like the CT/Cone Beam Scanner, they is able to perform every step of the dental implant process right here in our Mesquite office!
How Long Does It Take to Get Dental Implants?
There are several factors that contribute to how long the dental implant process takes, including:
- Any necessary preliminary treatments
- How many dental implants you’re getting
- Your body’s natural healing ability
Once the dental implant post has been surgically placed in your jaw, it will need time to fuse with the surrounding bone tissue. In most cases, this takes four to six months to complete. While this may seem like a very long time, the end result is a beautiful and comfortable restoration you’ll be able to rely on for decades to come.
How Long Do Dental Implants Last?
While other tooth replacement options like dentures and dental bridges can replace your missing teeth right away, they’re not designed to last forever. Inevitably, they’ll lose their fit, become uncomfortable to wear, and need to be replaced. Not only is this inconvenient, but it can be quite costly over the years. On the other hand, the one-time cost of dental implants can easily last for 30 years or more. In fact, with the proper care, you can expect to enjoy your newly rebuilt smile for life!
You deserve a complete, comfortable smile. If you’re ready to see if dental implants are right for you, don’t hesitate to call us today to schedule your consultation!