Dental Implants

What is a bone graft in a Dental Implant Procedure?

As a procedure, this minor surgical procedure entails a section of bone from another area of your body to be grafted onto your jaw bone, allowing it to be strong enough to support your dental implant and look forward to pain free pearly whites!

Herein, an incision is made in your gum to gain access to the bone beneath it, and then a grafting material is added. Most often, the grafting material is processed bone minerals around which your body will actually deposit new bone cells. However, sometimes it can even be a synthetic substance in a variety of forms: powder, granules, putty or a gel that can be injected through a syringe.

Bone grafts are necessary when there is insufficient bone volume to receive a dental implant. They provide the much needed extra support in cases where natural bone at the implant site is compromised in the form of quality or quantity (missing teeth).

To simplify this process further, there are numerous ways to classify a typical Bone graft procedure:

1. On the basis of ‘Timing’, where one could opt for a Staged Graft: procedure performed many months before the implant placement, usually 3-6 months; or a Simultaneous Graft: procedure performed while the implant placement is underway, as part of that surgery.

2. On the basis of ‘Origin’, where one could receive a Xenograft: the material coming from an animal source, usually a pig; Alloplast: use of synthetically made material, usually ceramic mesh; and/or Autograft: surgically derived from the patient’s own body and transplanted into the implant site, usually from another part of the jaw or from the hip.

What are the steps of Dental Implants treatment?

Dental Implant procedure is divided into three main phases.

Diagnosis and Planning phase

One or more x-ray/3-D scans are conducted to ensure that you have plenty of healthy bone structure as well as there is no close proximity of any other anatomically important structure at the implant site. If the bone has defect or is suboptimal, there is still a possibility of a bone graft in order to make an implant viable. At this stage the dentists work closely with a dental laboratory technician to identify the correct position and the size of the final prosthesis. Once the final prosthesis is identified, dentists decide the size and the angulation of the implant within the jawbone. This final position of the implant within the bone is then transferred into the surgical guide (surgical jig) with the help of a 3-D intraoral scanner.

Placement of an Implant phase

This minor surgical procedure entails upon the influence of a local anesthesia along with a sedative (only if you are feeling a little nervous) at one of your Local Dental clinics in Australia. With the help of the latest implant technology and surgical guide this step usually takes less than 60 minutes almost painlessly. Most patients drive home by themselves and also return to work straight after the surgery or the next day. Your clinician will send you home with a set of post-operative care instructions which are very simple to follow and require no special time/technique in your daily routine.

Healing and Prosthetic phase

Following the placement, the implant is then allowed to fuse with the underlying jawbone in order to stabilize and be able to bear the load of biting forces. The confirmation of ‘osseointegration’ along with recovery can usually take anywhere between 2-6 months based on the patient’s overall health, dental health, oral hygiene and medical history. Two weeks after the placement, your clinician will remove the stitches and conduct a clinical check to ensure that the healing process is following the expectation. You may be advised to intake antibiotics to compliment the healing process. After the end of three months, a conventional dental impression or a 3-D intraoral scan is made in order to fabricate a custom-made crown that fits the patient's esthetic as well as functional needs. At this stage, your dentists may take multiple high resolution photographs to transfer fine details of your dental anatomy to the laboratory technician. Once the final prosthesis comes back from the lab, the temporary prosthesis is then removed and a permanent prosthesis(crown) is either cemented or screwed into place.

What are the benefits?

It is only valid that there would be some skepticism about replacing your denture or a bridge with dental implants because of their relatively short history when compared with traditional dentures and bridges. However, they are the first choice of the dentists today if you think of replacing missing teeth.

Either as same day dental implants or full mouth dental implants, this fixed unit provides more comfort and stability, by becoming a part of you. Moreover, these standalone strengthened structures facilitate:

Improved appearance and speech

Dental implants look and feel like your own teeth. Unlike poor-fitting dentures, where the teeth can slip/click into the mouth causing you to mumble or slur your words, implants are designed to fuse with bone and hold the overlying prosthesis in place without any movement allowing one to speak without any discomfort. Thereby, giving you back your smile and confidence and helping you feel better about yourself.

Easier chewing

Since dentures cover a large part of our gum tissue, taste and temperature sensation are nearly lost, making it difficult to eat. However, the dental implants function like your own teeth, allowing you to eat your favorite food without pain and with enhanced feel for temperature and flavors of your food.

Enhanced oral health

Dental implants do not require reducing other teeth, as a tooth-supported bridge does. Because nearby teeth are not altered to support the implant, more of your own teeth are left intact, improving long-term oral health. Individual implants also allow you to floss between your teeth which allows you to maintain your oral hygiene. Dental implants also eliminate food traps under the dentures or a bridge which ultimately risks the long term health of remaining natural teeth.

Stability

Dental implants eliminate the embarrassing inconvenience of removing dentures, as well as the need for messy adhesives to keep them in place.

What is the cost of Dental Implants in Australia?

Truth be told, it is a myth that dental implants are expensive. In fact, they are a more affordable option to replace missing teeth when compared to long term benefits. Compared to resin or metal based removable dentures, they may seem costly. But with its advantages over dentures by avoiding future problems with the other teeth dental implants are a better financial decision as compared to dentures.

When compared with conventional dental bridges, usually, the value of a bridge unit is the same or more than the cost of an implant that can be placed in its place.

Since there are a lot of factors that the treatment expense depends on; such as the type of implant, the technique involved, surgical costs, bone grafts that may be needed in some cases, and the brand of implant one chooses; it would be no surprise that the rate may vary.

Though, at all our Local Dental Clinic branches, we offer attractive payment schemes to make it easier for you to pay for your implant treatment.

Are there any risks involved?

Like every medical procedure, dental implants also have risks attached to it. While most of the risks can be avoided through careful planning, there are two main categories we can divide the risks into.

Minor Risks such as post-operative discomfort/pain, minor swelling, bruising are some of the common ones. These risks can be handled easily by following the post-operative instructions carefully.

Major Risks such as damage to adjacent yet important anatomical structures, sinus issues, post- operative infection on the implant site are rare and could be avoided with cautious execution of the procedure, under a completely sterile environment.

Dental implants have now become a regular procedure in day-to-day dentistry. The revelation of your medical history works a long way to take the right decision during the planning phase and avoiding most of the complications.

There is no absolute contraindication of dental implants but mostly an operation is withheld for the individuals with acute illness, uncontrollable metabolic disease, bone or soft tissue disease, active infection, recent history of radio or chemotherapy.