Dental implants are metal devices placed within a patient's jaw bone for the attachment and use of tooth prosthesis. There must be enough healthy jaw bone present and preserved in order to secure the replacements.

Once your adult teeth come in, you think it's fair to assume that they'll be there until death do you part. As long as you put in your best efforts with hygiene, protection, and procedural intervention, they should respond with solid health, immovable strength and natural white color. Yet there are genetics, environmental stress, and accidents that cause structural damage to the tooth from crown to root. It can cause the necessity of tooth pulling or gradually deteriorate a tooth or several teeth right out of your mouth because of aggressive infection. This is where dental implants come in to help bring back what the various causes of tooth loss have taken from your smile or ability to comfortably chew.

This procedure is not as easy as a filling replacement or veneer fitting. It is serious surgery that has come about because you require replacement after a difficult loss. If you're dealing with the loss of one or more teeth, each step of the process from consultation, examination, and surgery, will be a test to see if this procedure is for you. Sometimes you have to try it out before you know what will work.

Dental implants are typically the titanium comprised fixtures which are screwed into your jaw bone that prepare you for prosthesis forms likes crowns. The metal insert is the base. One of the main requirements for candidacy and longevity of use is that you have enough healthy jaw bone present to hold the dental implant in place. Significant or persistent decay of the jaw due to severe infection or genetic bone health are the number one and two reasons for an inability to use these devices or for their damage and collapse over time. However, if you have been newly recommended for the benefits of this surgery, there are steps during your procedure that your physician can take to insure that the titanium will stay in place. Bone grafts are a useful way to build up the bone in your jaw. It can be your own bone or processed from a donor.

There are also steps for you to take to prolong and sustain dental implants in your mouth's form and function. First, it's important to understand what you are dealing with. The general outcome of the procedure is as individual as the patients that receive it. It generally takes up to six months for the jaw bone to heal around the addition before permanent crowns are secured to the top of it, so patients are paramount.

Second, the best thing that you can do for the health of all of your teeth and bones is to maintain healthy living. There are some things that you cannot prevent such as deterioration and lack of bone strength due to genetics. The biggest issue for failure is shifting and collapse, which is caused by the deteriorating bone mentioned above.

This surgery is a risk as are all procedures; however, the success rate and longevity of use are improving with each passing year. So if tooth loss has driven you to require embedded devices, try your best to know your odds and your options.

Article Tags: Dental Implants, Tooth Loss