Instant Teeth, How Can That Be?

Q: I have worn an upper denture for most of my adult life. I have most of my lower teeth, thank goodness. My husband has gone through extensive work on two or three occasions and, only because of a tooth that failed under a bridge.

His dental work consisted of, dental implants placed where a bridge once was and he is very happy and looks great. He says he’s never felt more comfortable or confident both in his smile and his ability to eat and chew his food.

He told me I should get rid of my upper denture and get implants. He said my palate would be free to better sense my food and I’d taste subtle flavours I am now missing.

I’ve been reluctant to have dental implants but three years ago I had a tooth go bad that couldn’t be saved. When I learned that a dental implant could be placed at the same time the tooth was removed, I was doubtful. My husband sat in on my consult and all our questions were answered so I went ahead. I was nervous as it was explained that only the post was going in, not the tooth and that healing was needed before a crown could be put on.

The reason for the digression is that I’ve been told that though the bone in my upper front jaw is not good enough, the bone in the molar area, the back and on both sides is very good. I was told I could have implants and teeth the same day.

How is that possible when I had to wait three months for the implant in my lower jaw to heal? Will I have teeth for sure?

A: You ask a very important question. The short answer is yes - if your bone is good and adequate numbers of implants can be placed on both sides of the jaw. The connecting teeth bound to your implants allow your chewing forces to be shared by all the implants that are supporting your new teeth, thereby reducing chewing forces on any single implant.

This understanding and technology has been known by the pioneers of implant dentistry for many years but is not common knowledge. Having said that, I have experienced two situations where, though the bone volume was adequate, hardness or denseness of bone was not, so same day fixed teeth (bridge-work) was not possible. In both cases, six months transpired before the fixed teeth could be inserted.

Today, technology is allowing dentists who place implants to compress bone in such a way as to make the bone denser and capable of receiving strong implant support sooner.

This has made the answer to your final question a 99% yes.

If we can help, we’d like to. Call 778-410-2080 for a consultation or visit us today.

Based on actual patient cases

 Calvin Ross Crapo

Victoria Implant Centre 778-410-2080

www.VictoriaImplantCentre.com

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The “Big Deal” With Implants

Q: When I was twenty-five, I was told that my back teeth were soft. I was told they would never hold a filling, so my best bet would be to have them all out. So, they took all my lower molars and the teeth in front of the molars (bicuspids) out nearly fifty years ago. I’ve had good and bad partials for all that time but right now I’ve got nothing, which makes it hard to eat. It’s been quite a few years in fact, since the last set broke. When I didn’t get them replaced, I was warned that the upper teeth, which have crowns, might descend down because they had nothing to chew against and because teeth are always growing they would just come down. Well, after not seeing a dentist in six years, it’s happened – my upper teeth have grown down and the dentist is wondering what to do. He said that my lower spaces show a lot of bone and implants could be put in. I checked with a denturist and even he said I should think about implants, but what about the overgrown upper teeth? How does that work? And why is everybody talking about implants? That’s all I hear anymore. Can’t somebody make a partial that fits? Now I don’t know if one could even be put in - so could you explain it all to me.

A: Without seeing the relationship of your upper teeth to the lower spaces where your teeth used to be, it is hard to give you an absolute diagnosis. Sometimes the descent or over eruption brings the upper teeth within a few millimeters of the edentulous space (your ridges). In these cases, placing posterior teeth with a partial denture or implants would require extraction of the upper teeth to make the proper space.

If the descent of your upper teeth is only partially infringing into the space that your lower molars once occupied, re-crowning the upper teeth may be done to “hike-up” the upper teeth so lower teeth can be put in at the proper height and alignment.

The “big deal” about implants is that they work so well – 95% of the time they work as well or better than a person’s natural teeth, they are stronger than natural teeth and experience no decay. In the other 5%, undiagnosed health concerns, operator error, patient habits (smoking, alcohol, dangerous lifestyles) and manufacturing defects contribute to implant failure.

In an environment as harsh as the mouth dental implants have passed the test of practical and scientific scrutiny. As time passes, the one thing that bothers me is that because they work so well other viable and less expensive services that maintain natural teeth may be rendered obsolete.

If we can help, we’d like to. Call 778-410-2080 for a consultation or visit us today.

Based on actual patient cases

 Calvin Ross Crapo

Victoria Implant Centre

778-410-2080