Modern dental implants offer a wide range of benefits and solve numerous problems caused by tooth loss that other tooth restoration methods can’t solve.

If you are missing one or more teeth, or if you are about to get a tooth extraction, you may be considering having implants placed. If so, it’s important to understand exactly what modern dental implants are, how they work, and how they can change your life. 

Here are the top 12 reasons why anyone suffering from tooth loss should opt to have dental implants put in.

1. Dental Implants Are Exceptionally Safe

Safety should always be our first concern when it comes to medical procedures. When it comes to dental implant surgery, it is exceptionally safe, there being very minimal chances of complications. In the hands of a well-trained periodontist with the right instruments, you really have nothing to worry about when having your implants put in.

2. Greater Comfort & Convenience!

No more dentures or bridges! That’s welcome news to many who suffer from tooth loss. Removable dentures often rub against your gums, irritating them and even causing bleeding and/or sores.

Dentures and bridges may feel unnatural in your mouth as well. Not so with dental implants. They feel so natural you may forget you have them! And you take care of them with normal dental hygiene just like natural teeth – no more sticky goo to hold dentures in!

3. You Can Replace Any And All Teeth

With modern dental implants, you can replace just one tooth, a few (be they adjacent or widely separated), or all or nearly all of your teeth as needed. You can get all on four implants that use permanent dentures attached to a firm foundation of 4 titanium implant rods. This can be done for one jaw or for both.

4. Implants Give You Full Functionality

Dental implants function and feel just like real teeth. You can talk, chew, and move your jaw without any unusual feeling or limitation. You can eat what you want. You can chew steak again! If you can do it with natural teeth, you can do it with dental implants too.

5. Dental Implants Look Like “Real Teeth”

Also, because the metal implant rod is capped with a dental crown, your implants will look like real teeth. Modern dental crowns closely mimic the look and coloration of the teeth you’ve lost. Your periodontist will have the lab create crowns with the contours, size, and color that most closely match your natural teeth. It’s 100% customizable!

6. Titanium Fuses Safely to Bone

In the process called osseointegration, certain metals can safely and firmly fuse to human bone tissue. The discovery that titanium osseointegration led to the revolution in modern dentistry that is dental implants.

Titanium does NOT release dangerous chemicals into the bone or other tissues. It does NOT easily come loose from human bone once it has successfully fused. And given the right conditions and sufficient time, titanium will safely and firmly fuse to your alveolar ridge.

7. Pain Can Be Minimized

Dental implant surgery need not be “scary.” With modern local anesthetics and dental sedation, pain levels can be minimized.

You will also be prescribed post-op pain killers and be given detailed instructions on what to expect during and how to navigate through the post-op healing process. Talk to dental implant patients and you will find it wasn’t as painful as you might imagine.

8. Implants Can Immediately Follow Extractions

The longer you go without a tooth in an empty socket, the more resorption of underlying bone matter and weakening of gum tissue occurs. When possible, it’s best to immediately place a new dental implant following a tooth extraction. This is often done, though the placing of a permanent dental crown on the implant rod may occur weeks later.

9. You Can Get Same-day Implants

Beyond just implants on the same day as an extraction, you can get some or all of your new teeth put in same-day. 

Same-day implants save you time and are easier to schedule for busy people. They can be as effective as other implants and last just as long. You can even get the crowns on same-day – or you can use temporary crowns until later – it’s up to you.

10. Dental Implants Can Be Affordable

Many people think they can’t afford dental implants, but most people actually can. They may not cost any more, overall, than other tooth restoration methods. Plus, dental insurance normally covers implant surgery as it is deemed a “necessary” procedure rather than a merely aesthetic one.

11. Implants Have a High Success Rate

Around 99% of dental implants are successfully placed the first time. That is a very high success rate for a dental procedure or for any medical procedure for that matter. Plus, even if something did go wrong, it would be easy for an experienced periodontist to correct it. There are very few false starts or complications from implant surgery.

12. Dental Implants Are a Long-lasting Solution

Typically, dental implants will last for decades – and for the rest of the patient’s life. It is normally a permanent solution to tooth loss that won’t require further surgeries down the road. That alone makes it an attractive solution to tooth loss.

With ordinary dentures, for example, you have to keep coming back for new ones every few years. With implants, you do it once and you’re done with that.

These are only a few of the most important reasons people are choosing dental implants more and more these days. Talk to your local periodontist to learn more about how dental implants work and why they are a superior option. In Central Florida, contact Ormond Beach Periodontics & Implant Dentistry to talk to an experienced periodontist and to schedule an in-office consultation!