Dental Implants Brisbane

If a tooth is missing or needs to be extracted, there are 3 main options for replacing the tooth – a denture, a bridge or an implant. In many instances, dental implants are now the best long term option to replace a missing tooth. Although dentures will do the job, they are the weakest option and need to be removed for cleaning. Like dental bridges, dental implants are permanently fixed to the mouth and do not need to be removed like dentures. Dental implants are better than the other 2 options as the adjacent teeth and their soft tissues do not need to be used to support an implant.

An implant uses the bone that used to hold a missing tooth to replace it. A titanium implant is surgically placed into the jaw bone where the missing tooth used to be. The bone is allowed to heal around the implant, usually for 3 to 6 months. If the bone has taken the implant and the implant is stable, a crown can be made to attach to the implant to replace the missing tooth.

Multiple implants can also be used to retain a denture or support a bridge. If there isn’t much good gum and bone to keep a denture stable in the mouth, the denture may be loose and uncomfortable. Implants can be placed in the jaw bone and the denture attached onto the implants to fix it in place and make it very stable. If there are several missing teeth next to each other and not enough natural teeth to support a traditional bridge, implants can be used for the supports. For example, 3 missing teeth next to each other may be replaced by an implant at either end and a 3 unit bridge attached to the implants.

If all the teeth are missing, there is also a treatment using dental implants called All-on-4. The treatment involves using 4 dental implants to replace all the teeth in the mouth with a dental bridge. This procedure is advantageous as only a minimal number of implants are required. A long bridge is also is stronger and better looking than a full denture and is fixed in place and doesn’t need to be removed by the patient to clean.

The Best Of The Best!

A dental implant is the best we have available to replace a missing tooth or tooth that needs to be extracted. It is divided into surgical and prosthetic phases of treatment:
Surgical Phase:

• Extract the tooth and remove infection if needed
• Bone graft if needed if not enough good bone
• Place implant in jawbone
• Allow implant to integrate with bone for 3-6 months
• Check stability of implant

Prosthetic Phase

• Take impression to make crown for implant
• Dental technician makes crown
• Attach crown to implant

An implant is a strong, long term, non-removable option to replace a tooth. It requires surgery to place the implant. It is, however, only minor surgery and can be done under local anaesthetic. Like all implants, there is a risk the dental implant is rejected by your body, however, the majority of cases are successful. In some cases there may not be enough bone to place an implant. This can be overcome by additional minor surgery such as bone grafting.

At Central Brisbane Dental, we can carry out your implant surgery and restore your implant for you as well. For complex cases, we can refer you to a specialist periodontist or oral surgeon for the surgical phase of implant treatment to ensure the best chance of successful implant surgery before carrying out the restorative phase for you at the practice. Although we deal with all implant types, we favour ADIN and Straumann implants for their proven track records.