What Are Dental Implants?
Medford, OR
 Adults losing teeth is nothing new. Nearly all adults have lost at least one of their permanent teeth before the age of 50. While many adults lose at least some of their teeth willingly — think wisdom tooth removal — the most common reason adults lose teeth is tooth decay. Adults who have lost teeth due to tooth decay or due to gum disease, injury, or medication have options when it comes to replacing their missing teeth. One of the best options for tooth restoration is dental implants. Here is some information from about dental implants, including single-tooth dental implants and multiple-tooth dental implants.
Why Should I Replace My Missing Teeth?
You may think you can go through the rest of your life without any problems with a couple of missing teeth. However, the more teeth you lose, the more at risk the rest of your teeth may be. Once you begin to lose teeth, your mouth begins to make adjustments. You may notice that the rest of your teeth shift to try and replace the missing teeth. This can cause issues with tooth spacing as well as issues with your jaw. Over time, your missing teeth can cause your entire jaw to experience bite issues as well as jaw pain and inflammation.
Also, because you are missing teeth, your body may begin to move bone from the area of your jaw to other areas of your body. This can cause your face to have a sunken look, and it could prematurely age you. If you have active gum disease, your missing teeth may actually make your gum disease worse instead of better.
About Dental Implants
Dental implants represent some of the best uses of modern dental technology. When dentists look to replace missing teeth, they want to replace natural teeth with something as close to natural teeth as possible. Bridges and dentures are amazing tools for restorative dentistry, but they have limitations.
Bridges and dentures are prosthetic replacements for natural teeth. They are usually made with a combination of acrylic, porcelain, and plastic. However well-made they are, bridges and dentures cannot fully replace natural teeth because they do not have tooth roots.
Your tooth roots are the reason your teeth stay in place. They anchor your teeth directly into your jawbone and allow your tooth, with its nerves and blood vessels, to perform its job. Without a tooth root, your body may remove the area of bone around the missing tooth.
Implants solve the tooth root issues. All dental implants consist of a prosthetic porcelain tooth that connects to an abutment and an implant post, both made of non-corrosive metal. Because the post attaches to the jawbone, your body believes there is a natural tooth there. Implants are strong and can last for decades.
Single-Tooth Dental Implants
Single-tooth dental implants are appropriate if you are missing one tooth, or multiple single-tooth implants can be used throughout your jaw if you are missing a tooth in more than one area. To get a single-tooth implant, our dentist will make an incision along the gumline where your missing tooth was because they will need to get to your jawbone. Because the dental implant anchors directly into your jawbone, our dentist will drill a hole into your jawbone and implant the post. Dental implants are made of either titanium or zirconium, both of which are light and strong, with no corrosion, so they will last a lifetime. Your jawbone will need time to heal and for new bone to grow around the implant. For most people, it takes between three and six months for the implant to be ready to receive an abutment and a prosthetic tooth.
After your implant has healed, our dentist will place the connecting piece between your implant and the prosthetic tooth, which is called an abutment. Like the implant post, most abutments are made from titanium or zirconium for strength and non-corrosion. After a couple of weeks, when the abutment is healed, you will be ready for your prosthetic tooth.
What About Multiple Dental Tooth Implants?
For most patients, multiple dental tooth implants work much the same way as single-tooth dental implants. Instead of having one prosthetic tooth, an abutment, and an implant, multiple-tooth implants usually have a prosthetic dental bridge on two or four abutments and dental implants.
Just like the single tooth procedure, our dentist makes an incision along your gumline to access your jawbone. Then, instead of drilling one hole in your jawbone, our dentist will drill either two or four holes to place the implants. After your jawbone heals completely, which could take six months, our dentist will place abutments. Then, a prosthetic, custom-made bridge will be connected to your abutments.
There are a variety of multiple dental tooth implants available. Dentists can replace a few teeth or all of your teeth using the multiple tooth implant procedure. In fact, you can have all of your teeth replaced by prosthetic implants rather than dentures.
Can Anyone Get Implants?
For many adults, dental implants are an excellent choice, but there are some people who do not make good candidates for dental implant procedures. If you use tobacco, you need to quit before you get dental implants because you are at a greater risk of infection if you smoke, vape, or chew. Also, if you are a heavy alcohol user, you may not be an ideal candidate for dental implants because of the infection risk. If you have active gum disease, you must get the disease under control before you can have dental implants done since the greatest risk to your dental implants is from infections.
As with other dental procedures, if you have a chronic illness, you will want to discuss your illness with our dentist. The dentist may have to make changes to your procedure based on your overall health.
What Should I Do?
Are you ready to get dental implants? Not sure whether you should get single-tooth dental implants or multiple-tooth dental implants? We can help you make the best decision for your dental health. Give a call at so that we can schedule an appointment for a consultation with our dentist.
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