Dental Implants

Dental implants are amazingly natural-looking replacements that feel as strong and comfortable as your teeth. In addition to restoring your normal appearance, dental implants successfully overcome all problems denture wearers experience during eating and speaking.

Dental implants gained their superior characteristics from being composed of a titanium screw inserted inside the jaw bone to replace the root of the missing tooth. After implant placement, it takes around 3-4 months to heal. The bone gradually grows and bonds with the adjacent implant surface, holding it securely.

Once in position, an implant can hold several replacement teeth solutions, such as a single crown, a bridge, or a denture.

The real benefit offered through dental implants is that they are virtually indistinguishable from your teeth, which means you can enjoy an attractive and natural-looking smile once more.

Perquisites of Dental Implants

To increase the success rate of dental implants, there are some requirements including:

• A good general health for optimum healing without complications.
• Sufficient bone quality and quantity to support the dental implants.
• Healthy gums.
• Free from parafunctional habits that may affect dental implant success, such as bruxism.
• Strictly following oral hygiene measures.
• Expert dental professionals with deep experience. Dulwich Dental Office implant experts led by Dr. Javier Perez have performed over 5000+ successful implant cases.

Dental Implants Process at Dulwich Dental Office

Dulwich Dental Office is a world-leading dental center in London offering premium dental implant solutions. Our experts have wide experience restoring single or multiple missing teeth using dental implant solutions through dental crowns, bridges, or a complete denture.  Your journey to having a dental implant consists of 3 main stages, diagnosis and treatment planning, the surgery, and the final fit of your dental implant restoration.

Diagnosis and treatment plan

The diagnosis and treatment plan step is one of the most important stages of dental implants. Here one of our dental implant surgeons in Dulwich, London will take a detailed medical and dental history, including the assessment of how you lost your tooth whether it was trauma, dental caries, or gum diseases as this may affect your treatment plan.

After history collection, examination of the implant site using tactile and imaging techniques is essential.

• A three-dimensional CT imaging scan of your jaws or an OPG may be taken, to show the horizontal and vertical dimensions of your remaining bone. If you have insufficient bone, we may have to undertake a bone graft surgery using either allogenic or autogenic bone material.
• Our dental implant surgeons will manually feel the ridge to assess your soft tissue. This is often a simple way to determine how fibrous your tissue is, and how we will manage your soft tissues for you to attain the best aesthetic result.

The number of missing teeth is also included in the parameters affecting your treatment planning. Ideally, every missing tooth is replaced with a dental implant. However, if multiple teeth are missing, several dental implant techniques are available through all-on-4 and all-on-6 dental implant strategies. The dental implant restoration may be performed using a dental crown in case of a single dental implant, or a dental bridge in case of 2-3 missing teeth. A full arch of missing teeth may be restored using a fixed or a removable denture.

Our dental implant surgeons will discuss the most suitable dental implant solution for you, regarding the number of dental implants and the final restoration type.

The surgical phase

Before your surgical day, an impression is taken and sent to the lab to create a surgical tray to guide the dental surgeon regarding the site, direction, and drilling depth.

On the day of the surgery, the surgical site is numbed using local anaesthesia to be comfortable during the surgery. If you feel anxious, Dulwich Dental Office offers premium sedation solutions to increase your comfort during the procedure. Then, the soft tissue is retracted to expose the underlying bone and the surgical tray is used to drill the dental implants and secure them in place. Finally, the soft tissue is returned in place and sutured.

Following the implant placement surgery, our dental experts will provide post-operative instructions to ensure a smooth healing process. These instructions include:

• Use a cold compress for 20 minutes on and 10 minutes off to avoid swelling.
• Avoid spitting for 24 hours after the surgery.
• Refrain from smoking and alcohol consumption as it may delay healing.
• Avoid hot food or drinks for 24 hours following the surgery.
• Maintain good oral hygiene, but do not brush the area of surgery.
• Stick to a soft and cool diet to avoid food particles lodgment in the surgical site.
• Avoid strenuous activities in the few days following surgery.
• Avoid using straws or sucking as negative pressure may open the wound.

If you feel any abnormal signs such as fever, abnormal pain, swelling, or pus exudate, consult our dental experts immediately as this may indicate an infection of the implant site.

Dental implant restoration

Dental implants take around 3-4 months to heal. Healing is judged when there is complete fusion between the dental implant surface and the surrounding bone, which is called osseointegration.

After osseointegration, the implant surface is exposed, and the implant abutment is screwed to the implant fixture. After that, an impression is taken and sent to the lab to fabricate the final restoration. Meanwhile, a temporary restoration is fabricated to restore function, and esthetics, and promote the gum healing around the dental implant.

After the fabrication of the final restoration, our experts will examine its fit, bite, and colour blending with the surrounding natural teeth before cementation.

Caring For Your Dental Implants

• Brush your teeth as usual even your dental implants.
• Floss between dental implant restorations and neighbouring natural teeth.
• Keep regular check-ups and hygiene visits to maintain the health of your dental implants.
• If you have a removable implant retained denture, follow the regular cleaning instructions for the denture and clean around the implant abutments.
• If you received a bridge retained by dental implants, make sure to clean beneath the dental bridge using special cleaning tools, such as interdental brushes to void gum inflammation.

Dental Implants Offers You

• Natural-looking restoration.
• Highly retentive dentures.
• Conservation of the neighbouring teeth.
• Durability.
• Better chewing ability.
• Preservation and continuous stimulation of jawbone.
• Easy to clean and care for.
• Improved speech.