The basic dental implant procedure involves three parts: a tooth root implant, a pin, and finally a tooth. The entire process can take up to three months, most of which is healing time. That’s because dental implant procedure is much more involved and permanent than simply getting dentures. It’s also much better, and here’s why.
Dentures are uncomfortable and embarrassing. Denture wearers have to use a messy adhesive…basically gluing a rack of teeth onto the gums and hoping they stick. Unlike the results of a dental implant procedure, dentures can slide around, ultimately causing the wearer to speak in a strange way so as not to disturb the dentures. Terrible! The dental implant procedure is permanent so there’s nothing to take out at night, nothing to clean (other then brushing your teeth) and no glue to buy.
The first step of the dental implant procedure, after consultation, is oral surgery to implant a titanium rod into the gums. This will be the anchor of the new teeth. Actually, it’s implanted into the bone socket…under the gums. It’s a titanium rod that will become part of the jaw. It takes quite a while for the jawbone to heal after this. The bone has to heal and grow around the rod but once it’s done, after six to twelve weeks, the patient has a permanent and solid foundation upon which to anchor a new tooth.
The second step of the dental implant procedure is to attach a connector post which is called an abutment. This smaller post will connect the new post in the jawbone to the tooth. Finally, the new tooth is then attached to the abutment. The new tooth is called a crown.