Dental Implants & Dentures
Get Back A Smile You’re Proud Of
Millions of Americans suffer tooth loss due to tooth decay, tooth extraction, gum disease or injury. If you’re one of them, it’s important that you know dental implants and dentures can be used to replace missing teeth and gain back a smile you’re proud of.
Our San Antonio dentists are experts in implant dentistry and dentures, and are committed to not only improving your overall dental health, but your smile, too.
Dentures
If all or some of your teeth have been lost due to injury, tooth decay, tooth removal or periodontal disease, complete or partial dentures are options to restore your great smile.
Types of Dentures
- Conventional Dentures: Placed in the mouth after the remaining teeth are removed and tissues have healed, which usually takes a few months.
- Immediate dentures: Your dentist takes measurements of your jaw during your first visit, then this denture is placed in the mouth immediately after the tooth removal. If you have an immediate denture, you aren’t without teeth while the mouth heals.
- Partial dentures: Removable partial dentures are replacement teeth attached to a pink, plastic base that is connected by a metal framework. These dentures have a natural look and attach to your teeth with metal clasps.
Implants
For most patients, dental implants and full mouth dental and teeth implants are the best option for replacing missing teeth. A long-term, superior solution, dental implants look and feel natural, as well as provides a wide variety of additional benefits.
Dental Implant Benefits:
- Natural Look and Feel:Dental implants have a lifelike appearance and match the original color of your teeth.
- Eat What You Want:Since dental implants are permanently anchored, you can eat your favorite foods.
- Regain Confidence and Self-Esteem: Dental implants dramatically improve your self-image and esteem.
You’re one appointment away from understanding if dental implants or dentures are the smile solution you’ve been searching for.
Learn More About Dentures vs. Implants
Dentures and dental implants are both great procedures, depending on what your needs are. Your dentist at Wurzbach Parkway Family Dental will help you determine which is best for you:
- Dentures are constructed quickly
- Dentures without implants stabilizing them will move
- Dental implants have a more natural feel
- Dental implants are the most natural-looking
The implant procedure only takes a few dental visits. At the first appointment, the dentist takes a complete dental history, x-rays and completes an oral examination.
During the follow-up visit, the dentist gives you local anesthesia, and the titanium screw implant is placed into the jaw bone. After surgery, it takes a few months for the implant to fuse to the bone through osseointegration.
After it has fused, there is a minor surgical exposure of the top of the implant. The dentist attaches a post— abutment —to the top to support the tooth or set of teeth. During the last phase, the dentist makes teeth impressions, a bite mold, and then a temporary crown is attached to the abutment. After the gum has grown and shaped itself, a permanent crown replaces the temporary one.
Your dentist and you will determine where and how the implants should go. There are different treatment options, depending on your needs:
- Single tooth replacement:One implant and crown can replace the natural tooth and its root.
- Several teeth:Implant-supported bridges can replace numerous teeth and their roots can anchor an existing Denture to stabilize a denture that moves.
- All teeth:An all on four implant-supported bridge or full dentures can replace them.
- Sinus Augmentation:The upper back jaw is a difficult area to place dental implants because of the lack of bone and the closeness to the sinus area. This procedure raises the sinus floor and develops bone to place the dental implants.
- Ridge Modification:Deformities in the upper or lower jaw also leave inadequate bone to put dental implants. To correct it, the gum is lifted away, so the bone defect can be filled with bone to build up the ridge.
Dental implants are the solution for people of all ages and can be used to help many health concerns: gum disease, problem teeth, tooth extraction, dentures, or bone loss. But dental implants are usually not recommended for children until their jaw growth is complete.
Dental implants require good oral hygiene and regular dental visits, just like other teeth. The better you care for your teeth, the longer your implants will last.
