Temporary Anchorage Devices (TADs)
These devices are temporary small diameter implants that aid your orthodontist in achieving your perfect smile faster and more predictably. When straightening your teeth, your orthodontist can utilize these temporary anchorage devices to prevent placing undue stress and pressure on other teeth while correcting your smile. The anchorage devices are strategically placed between your roots and removed after completion of orthodontics.
Anesthesia
Your surgery can be performed with local anesthesia (Novocaine only) or asleep with general anesthesia. When placing implants, a light sedation or general anesthesia is recommended, but not required. If you have general anxiety for any type of dental procedure, you will find the general anesthesia very soothing and stress-free. There will be times towards the end of the surgery where the anesthesia might need to be lightened when taking impressions and checking bite, but you will be asleep and comfortable when the actual implant is placed.
Our doctors perform in-office implant surgery in a hospital-style operating suite, thus optimizing the level of sterility. Inpatient hospital implant surgery maybe required for patients who have special medical or anesthetic needs or for complex, full reconstructions requiring extensive bone grafting. For more information, please see our section under Anesthesia.
Advantages of dental implants
Once you learn about dental implants, you finally realize there is a way to dramatically improve you life through improved function and esthetics. When you lose several teeth whether its a new situation or something you have lived with for years chances are you have never become fully accustomed to losing such a vital part of yourself.
Dental implants can be your doorway to renewed self-confidence and peace of mind.
It can open the door to a lifetime of renewed comfort and self-confidence for millions of individuals facing the frustration and embarrassment of tooth loss.
There are several advantages of implants over other conventional treatment:
- Predictable. Using the newest and latest technology, implants have over 95% success rate
- Durable. Implants last much longer than crowns, since decay under crowns and root fractures do not occur with implants like they do with natural teeth
- Less sensitivity and pain. Implants are inert substances that have made a direct connection with bone. Therefore, hot/cold sensitivity and pressure sensitivity do not occur.
- Less trauma to adjacent teeth. When planning for a bridge, the adjacent teeth have to be prepared and shaved down to accommodate a crown. Implants generally do not require any preparation of neighboring teeth.
Click Here to learn more about Missing Teeth and Consequences of Non-Treatment.
Click Here to learn more about Missing Teeth and Treatment Options.
Disadvantages of dental implants
- Time. Compared to bridges, implants take longer, since it relies on your body to heal around the implant. From the time of tooth extraction, a bridge can take 4-8 weeks, but implants can take 3-9 months.
- Cost. Implants require intricate, small, high-tech parts. Therefore, the lab and equipment costs are higher. However, our doctors are able to make implants affordable at a cost comparable to bridges, since they perform a large number of implant surgeries.
- Early failures. When implants fail, they fail early; they get rejected by the bodys immune system. This occurs 5% of the time (1 in 20). However, because of the high rate of success, any failed implant is always replaced at no additional cost.
Possible complications
Lip, chin and tongue numbness
Implants placed in the back part of the lower jaw have this inherent complication due to the proximity of the nerve that supplies sensory feeling to the lower lip, chin and tongue. If the implant is too close to the nerve, tingling and numbness can occur. The risk is dependent on the anatomy of the nerve and the amount of available bone above the nerve. Our doctors take special precautions with adequate preoperative planning with 3D imaging and surgical stents to minimize this complication
Sinus exposure
Implants placed in the back part of the upper jaw are commonly close to the floor of the sinus. Our 3D imaging allows us to determine the exact distance from the ridge to the floor, thus minimizing any complications of entry into the sinus. Furthermore, if the sinus is especially close, additional procedures to augment the deficiency can be performed at the time of implant surgery or as a separate procedure prior to implant placement.
Implant failure
Since the implant is a foreign body, there is a small chance that your body could reject it. The possibility of implant failure is approximately 5% (1 in 20). All failed implants are fully guaranteed and replaced at no additional cost after the bone has regenerated.
Jaw fracture
For jaws that have extensive re sorption over time, placement of implants could further weaken the bone and theoretically could fracture. Fortunately, this extremely rare complication is only for exceptionally weak and resorbed jaws and not significant for routine cases.