This article explores the various benefits and advantages offered by dental implants as a solution to single and multiple missing teeth.

Anyone with one or more missing teeth can easily understand how tooth loss can make you feel self-conscious about eating or smiling in public. You tend to avoid such social embarrassments by hiding your smile or not smiling at all. In some extreme cases, people shy away from social situations entirely. This is just not a sustainable solution and it can have a tremendous impact upon your normal daily life.

Low self-esteem is just one of many problems caused by missing teeth: poor bite function, diet compromise, bad nutrition and an increased risk of infection and further tooth loss. But did you know that, apart from these serious concerns, tooth loss might also lead to bone loss? This is why it’s so important for Chicago residents to replace missing teeth with Chicago dental implants.

Chicago Dental Implants: Advancements in Implant Dentistry

Whether you are missing a single tooth or every single one of your original adult teeth, innovations in dental implantology and fixed oral rehabilitation can give you new teeth again, thus restoring your appearance, proper nutrition, articulation in speech, overall oral health, comfort and self-confidence. The benefits of opting for a sophisticated teeth replacement solution extend far beyond the immediately evident, but have long-term ramifications for your oral health and overall quality of life.

With the development of innovative dental implant techniques, medical technology and hardware; Chicago patients are able to enjoy more aesthetic and functional benefits from their new teeth. Moreover, these can be achieved in an unprecedented time of as little as a single day, with a single procedure. So, not only is the science behind dental implantology getting more sophisticated, it’s getting cheaper too!

Comparing a Patient’s Teeth Replacement Options:

Leaving missing teeth without replacement

• Unattractive smile
• Inability to eat properly
• Inability to speak properly
• Faster jawbone loss

Traditional crown and dental bridge

• Requires two healthy teeth to be sacrificed
• Does not promote a healthy jawbone
• Higher risk of decay affecting the neighboring teeth
• Uncomfortable tooth replacement solution

Dental implants and crown

• Restores chewing ability
• Restores smile and self-confidence
• Does not damage neighboring teeth
• Promotes a healthy jawbone, preventing bone loss
• Looks and feels natural

Understanding Bone Loss…

When you lose a tooth, the jawbone under it starts to shrink, eventually becoming brittle due to lack of stimulation or “exercise”. Hence, losing a tooth not only restricts your diet and affects your smile; it also becomes the cause of change in the shape of your face, making a patient look prematurely aged. It is for this reason that experts in the placement of dental implants in Chicago always recommend this treatment over and above conventional approaches to teeth replacement. Dental implants stimulate the jawbone like natural teeth do, which keeps it alive and healthy.

Chicago Dental Implants: A Final Note

Dental implants are the closest thing modern Chicago implant dentists can offer patients who have lost one or more of their original adult teeth. They look, function and feel very similar to natural teeth. But, having said this, they cannot rival the strength and longevity of your own biological technology. For this reason, implant dentists always urge Chicago residents to look after their natural teeth. Remember, prevention is better than cure!

Learn some interesting facts about dental implants in this four-part article series, from their historical conception to their sophistication as a strong and durable tooth replacement technology.

Welcome back to our four-part article series on Chicago dental implants and the many interesting facts there are to learn about this important teeth replacement technology. In our previous article post, the second installment of the series, we found out that the key behind the success of dental implant – osseointegration – was actually an accidental discovery made by Swedish orthopedic surgeon, Professor Per-Ingvar Branemark.

This discovery is so interesting because dentists had struggled for many hundreds of years to find a tooth replacement material that could remain permanently rooted in the jaw, to no avail. It took a single accidental experiment in 1951 to reveal the key to permanent teeth replacement and that was titanium’s total biocompatibility.

We also looked at some of the resultant benefits of osseointegration: the ability of dental implants to remain free-standing (independent) in the mouth without the need of support from the neighboring hard and soft tissues, the teeth and gums. Let’s now take a look at some of the incredible feats of modern implant hardware.

Interesting Fact # 5: Dental Implants Promote a Healthy Jaw Bone

You could be forgiven for thinking that surgically inserting a piece of metal into your jaw would be bad for it, but actually, dental implants are essential for the long term health of your jawbone! This is because, unlike any other teeth replacement technology, dental implants replace both the crown and the root of the missing tooth. Think about it: dentures sit on your gums while dental bridges rest on the filed-down crowns of the teeth adjacent to the missing tooth. Both replace the visible portion of the tooth, but not the structures underneath the gums.

The roots of your teeth are essential to the good health of the bone tissue in the jaw, which, just like any muscle in the body, requires “exercise” to remain strong and healthy. By transmitting the forces associated with biting, grinding and chewing into this tissue, the tooth roots do just this. When they are lost, therefore, there is a serious risk of atrophy and this can cause the jawbone to shrink and waste away at the site/s of the missing tooth or teeth.

The long-term consequences of jawbone atrophy are dental instability of the entire tooth row and even further tooth loss. But perhaps most concerning for patients is the fact that the remodeling process of your jawbone can cause premature aging of your natural facial contours: a shocking and terrifying prospect for anyone.

Tooth implants replace both the crown and the root of the missing tooth, which in turn replaces the source of stimulation needed by the jaw to remain alive and healthy. This makes implants the best and most sophisticated teeth replacement solution on the market – one that promotes excellent jawbone health and prevents complex dental problems and premature aging in the long run (see image below).

Interesting Fact # 6: Dental Implants are Almost Always Successful

The success rate of dental implants in the treatment of single and multiple missing teeth is incredibly high:

• In the case of single tooth replacement, the success rate is 98% over a period of 25 to 30 years.
• In the case of fixed oral rehabilitation (the replacement of an entire arch of upper and/or lower teeth), the success rate is 95% over a 10-year period, without any significant loss of jawbone volume noted.
  

This is an excellent achievement and surpasses, in lifespan and quality, both dentures and bridges, both of which go hand-in-hand with daily challenges and repeat expenses.

Stay Tuned for Part 4

To read some final interesting facts about tooth implants in Chicago, stay tuned for the final installment of this four part article series.

Chicago Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Irfan Atcha interviewed by Randy Alvarez about new breakthroughs in dental implants and cosmetic dentistry.

Dr. Irfan Atcha

New Teeth Chicago

747 N. LaSalle St.

Chicago, IL 60654

Contact: 312-951-8338