Dental Implants – Upper Arlington, OH · Westerville, OH

What are Dental Implants?

A dental implant is a metal post shaped like a screw. It’s made to be surgically placed in your jaw, where it will eventually join with the surrounding bone through a natural process called osseointegration. This is what allows implants to feel like natural teeth and last for decades at a time. Once your implant post is in place, a metal abutment can be used to attach a restoration such as a dental crown, bridge, or denture that will complete your smile.

The 4-Step Dental Implant Process

The dental implant process is slightly different for everyone, but it always follows the same general structure.

• It begins with a consultation where we evaluate your mouth and jawbone to make sure you’re a candidate for implant surgery. We may need to schedule preliminary treatments to prepare your mouth for the next stage in the process.
• Once your jaw is ready to support implants, a minor surgical procedure is performed to place the posts. We can have a trusted oral surgeon perform the procedure in-house so that you don’t have to drive across town to a separate practice.
• It takes about three to six months for implants to join with the jawbone, after which we can perform a second, smaller surgery to attach abutments.
• Finally, we can take impressions of your mouth with your implants in place and use them to design the final restoration. Once we’ve made any necessary last-minute adjustments, we can attach said restoration to the abutment(s) and put the finishing touches on your new smile.

Benefits of Dental Implants

• Prevent Bone Loss: Dental implants help stimulate the jawbone, which prevents the bone from shrinking over time.
• Natural Look and Feel: Dental implants are just as comfortable as your natural teeth, and the restorations they support are made out of lifelike materials.
• Unrestricted Diet: With dental implants, you’ll have the freedom to enjoy all of your favorite foods thanks to the chewing power that they provide.
• Easy Maintenance: Dental implants don’t require specialized care. You can brush and floss them the same way you would your natural teeth.
• Longevity: While dentures and bridges usually last for around 10 years at a time, dental implants can potentially last the rest of your life.

Who Dental Implants Can Help

Dental implants can be used to replace any number of teeth. As long as you are an adult, have a sufficient amount of bone in your jaw, have a mouth free of gum disease, and don’t suffer from any medical conditions that would prevent you from having surgery done, you are most likely a good candidate for the procedure. During your initial consultation, we’ll give you an outline of what you can expect the process to look like based on how many teeth need to be replaced.

Missing One Tooth

A single implant can be placed in the area where the tooth was lost. After the area around the implant heals, we can restore it with a lifelike dental crown. Unlike traditional dental bridges, single implants let us fill in small gaps in your smile without having to make any permanent changes to your natural enamel.

Missing Multiple Teeth

When there’s a gap that was left by three or more consecutive teeth, we can place two dental implants to support a dental bridge. This approach lets us replace multiple teeth at once without needing to place a separate implant post for each one. If multiple gaps need to be filled, you can also get a partial denture supported by a certain number of implants.

Missing All of Your Teeth

Traditional full dentures rest on your gums, but if you’d like your new smile to have more stability, we can instead attach an entire arch of artificial teeth to four or more dental implant posts. Implant dentures can be permanently fixed in place, but they can also be designed to be removable based on your preferences.