The Many Uses of Implants in Improving Your Dental Health

Whether age, an accident, gum disease, or tooth decay is wreaking havoc on your teeth, you want to preserve your ability to smile, chew, and talk. While we have several tooth-replacement options, dental implants are rising head and shoulders above the others for many reasons, which we discuss here.

At Peninsula Dental Excellence, our goal is to provide you with the most effective options available and dental implants are fast becoming our go-to tool. Both Drs. Colin Au and Jeff Yoshihara turn to implants to help our patients regain full dental function and our success rates are fantastic.

To illustrate why dental implants are so valuable, here’s a look at their many uses and benefits.

Replacing a missing tooth

If you’re missing a tooth, dental implants are a superior replacement option as they excel in both form and function. With a dental implant, we place a metal post into your jawbone and then wait for the bone to grow up and around the implant, fusing it into place.

Once the implant is secure, we place a crown over top. The crown is made from materials that allow the replacement tooth to blend in seamlessly with your surrounding teeth.

At this point, you essentially have a replacement tooth that’s almost as good as your original tooth (when it was healthy!), as it provides excellent stability, function, and aesthetics. Not to mention, by mimicking your natural roots with the metal post, we can prevent bone loss in your jaw.

Supporting your dentures

If you’re missing an entire row of teeth, dentures are your best option, but these replacement teeth can be problematic. The primary issue with removable dentures is that they aren’t as stable as your natural teeth and they take some time to get used to when you talk and chew. 

To address this fairly important issue, we offer implant-supported dentures, a technique in which we secure your dentures to dental implants. To begin, we strategically place implants along your arch (typically four). Once these implants are in place, we design your dentures to snap to the implants, securely anchoring your replacement teeth to your gums.

You can still remove the dentures for cleaning, but you no longer need to rely on messy adhesives or insecure suction techniques to hold your new teeth in position.

Mini dental implants

If you don’t have enough bone in your jaw to support a full implant or you’re unable to undergo an implantation surgery, a mini dental implant is just the ticket. As the name implies, this type of implant features a smaller post that we insert into your jaw during a minimally invasive procedure. In some cases, we’re able to attach your crown or dentures at the same time, which can save you considerable time.

If you want to learn more about how dental implants can play a role in your dental health, contact our office in Mountain View, California, to set up an appointment.