Mesa Dental Implants

What are dental implants? If you’ve lost a tooth, dental implants are a great choice for replacing that tooth. They consist of an implanted root form capped by a dental crown. Dental implants look and feel exactly like natural teeth. They are fixed in place, just like your natural teeth, and visually indistinguishable from your other teeth.

In this page we’ve provided some basic information about dental implants, so you can read more about the procedure.

Dental Implants Procedure

Dr. Kitchen or Dr. Stapley will first determine whether or not you are a good candidate for a dental implant with a thorough exam. Your general health must be good, and you must be strong enough to tolerate the surgery necessary to implant the root form.

The dental implant root form is surgically implanted into the bone of the jaw at the site of the lost tooth. This part of the dental implant procedure is often performed by an oral surgeon. A healing period is required, during which the bone of the jaw grows in around the root form so that it is securely anchored.

When the root form has healed, the crown is put in place.

When Dental Implants are Appropriate

If all of your teeth have been extracted, dental implants are vastly preferable to removable dentures. Removable dentures offer 50% chewing efficiency at best, and loss of all the natural teeth will cause the bone of the jaws to be reabsorbed, so that after time no denture can be worn at all.

If you are missing one or two teeth and do not want to compromise the surrounding teeth with a bridge, dental implants are a good choice.

If you are missing a molar in the back of your mouth, placement of a dental bridge could be difficult.

Dental implants are fairly expensive, and are not covered by dental insurance. In the long run, however, dental implants can be the most cost effective option, as they rarely need to be replaced, as dental bridges do.