Enhance your smile and wellness with Dental Implants

Missing teeth can significantly impact your life, not only aesthetically but also on your oral health. Dental implants can restore your smile and bring about many benefits such as easier eating, improved speech, comfort, and much more. At Gentle Dentistry in Tampa, we provide premium care during the dental implant procedure. We invite you to contact our office today to schedule a consultation.

What Are Dental Implants?

A dental implant is a root replacement that replicates the root portion of a natural tooth. Because of the compatibility of the implant with the bone, a process called osseointegration, the dental implant fuses with the bone and becomes the foundation for placing a replacement tooth. Dental implants are also used for replacing a single tooth or multiple missing teeth.

What Concerns Can Dental Implants Fix

Dental implants are far and away the best replacement for a missing tooth. Because the implant anchors into the jawbone, just as your natural teeth do, an implant will function and feel just like a natural tooth. Plus, an implant will usually last the remainder of the patient’s life.

If you miss more than a couple of teeth, implants dramatically improve bridges and partial dentures by providing an unparalleled anchor. A traditional bridge uses crowns on the adjacent healthy teeth on each side of the missing teeth to anchor the bridge. But to place those crowns, the healthy teeth need to be shaved down to make room for the crowns. If implants are used as anchors instead, the bridge or partial denture snaps down onto the implant. It is a much more robust way to support the prosthetic.

Reasons You Should Consider A Dental Implant

• Without the root structure of a natural tooth present, the jawbone will shrink. This shrinkage will make your face look older than it is.
• There are no loose parts to worry about moving or slipping. The dental implants are stable and comfortable. Typically, it will serve its owner for life.
• Dental implants prevent bone resorption and bone loss that follows tooth loss.
• Dental implants protect the jawbone from bone loss, protects the adjacent healthy teeth, and allows you to maintain a more youthful natural look.

Cost Of Dental Implants

The cost of your implant can vary depending on if your jawbone has lost mass due to the tooth being missing for a period. If this has happened, Dr. Loc Tong and Dr. Angela Rasmussen may need to use bone grafts to build your jawbone back up to enable the implant base to anchor correctly. During your consultation, she can get a good idea of your unique needs and give you an accurate estimate of how much your implant will cost.

How Long Will a Dental Implant Last?

Dental implants are the longest-lasting dental prosthetics. In many cases, they will last the remainder of the patient’s life. As long as you don’t allow gum disease to occur, your jawbone will remain healthy, and the implant base will be firmly anchored for decades. The artificial tooth attached to the implant base may crack or become damaged over time, but it is simple to have a new porcelain tooth made and attached to the existing implant base and post.

Are dental implants painful? What is the procedure like?

Not everyone can have a dental implant, at least not immediately. If a person has been missing a tooth or teeth for some time, the jawbone below the gap may have resorbed to the point that there isn’t enough bone mass to hold the implant safely. In that case, Drs. Tong and Rasmussen will need to build up the jawbone with bone grafts before placing an implant. If not, just about any adult of any age can have an implant.

The implant process involves four distinct steps:

• Implant placement
• Osseointegration
• Attaching the post
• Attaching the false tooth

What Is the Success of Dental Implants?

With over fifty years of clinical experience and over a million patients treated, statistics have confirmed a success rate of 95% for individual dental implants and even higher for the bridges they support. Implants provide an effective long-term solution to the problem of tooth loss. If you take care of your teeth and maintain good oral health, then there is no reason your implants shouldn’t last a lifetime. That makes dental implants a wise decision and an efficient long-term solution.

Benefits Of Dental Implants

• Dental implant replacement teeth look, feel, and function like natural teeth.
• Sense of taste and, consequently, appetite improve with dental implants.
• Dental implants maintain a youthful, attractive smile.
• The ability to chew without pain or gum irritation is restored with dental implants.
• Dental implants reduce or eliminate bone shrinkage commonly associated with loss of teeth.
• With dental implants, there is no worry of teeth slipping as with removable dentures or partials.

Learn more today

Whether you are considering mini dental implants, full mouth dental implants, or other types of dental implants, our team can help you make the right decision for your smile! Dr. Loc Tong and Dr. Angela Rasmussen have years of experience providing high-quality implant dentistry. Please contact our Tampa practice at (813) 734-7102 for a consultation to see how dental implants can benefit you.

Dental Implant

Video Transcript

Dental implants are titanium roots, that are replaced with in the jawbone to resemble a tooth or group of teeth. A screw is inserted through the gums and into the jawbone. A porcelain crown is then attached to the screw to become the new tooth or teeth. They can be used to support dental prosthesis including crowns, dentures, and bridges. Today’s treatments are so natural looking, no one will know you had surgery. There’s approximately a 95% success rate for all implants. With modern advances in dentistry, some implants can be restored immediately with life like all porcelain crowns. For more details ask your dentist.