Dental Implants

Evaluating Your Options for Replacing Missing Teeth

Pick up most magazines or newspapers these days and you're likely to see an ad about dental implants. A clear understanding of the increasing options available for implant treatment is a good place to start together with alternative replacements for missing teeth and their economic impact. This article will educate you about the problems associated with tooth loss and why implants are considered the state-of-the-art tooth replacement system.Implants provide virtually the same function as natural teeth roots.

Dental Implants: The Optimal Tooth Replacement

Let's begin by taking a look at what makes implants the most optimal tooth replacement system today. An implant connection to the bone is different than how a tooth connects to the bone but it performs the same function. Dental implants act as substitute tooth roots in a unique way.

Implants actually stabilize bone and prevent the inevitable bone loss that occurs when teeth are lost. Commercially pure titanium, of which almost all current implant surfaces are made, has the unique property of being “osteophilic” (osseo-bone, philic–loving), thus joining biochemically to bone. Osseo-integration (osseo–bone,integrate–to join or fuse with) was discovered quite by chance and has revolutionized dentistry. The fusion is almost like a pillar in concrete, allowing no movement at all.

Stresses of biting forces are transmitted directly through implants to the bone—which they allow for very well. They provide virtually the same function as natural teeth roots, including stimulating the bone, thereby stabilizing it and preventing its loss.