This article provides a close-up on dental implants and addresses questions including “what are they, how do they work and do they cause any pain?”

You, like many people, probably have the term ‘dental implant’ in your vocabulary. But if your dentist told you that one of your teeth had to be pulled and replaced with one of them, the gaps in your knowledge would begin to show! What IS a dental implant / all on 4 dental implant anyway? You know that they are used to replace missing teeth, but how do they work? And most of all, do they hurt?

Dental Implants: A Closer Look at the Hardware

You’re right; dental implants are used to replace missing teeth. But there’s quite a bit more to them than that. Dental implants consist of three separate components:

• An artificial ‘root’, which is made from medical grade titanium; a very strong, lightweight and non-corrosive metal.
• An abutment or ‘collar’
• An artificial crown, constructed from high quality ceramic material.

The surgery required for the placement of dental implants involves the insertion of the titanium screw or ‘artificial root’ into the jaw bone at the location of the missing tooth. The dentist then affixes the abutment to the top of the screw, before attaching a temporary porcelain crown. In other words, once the procedure has been concluded your missing tooth will be completely replaced!

What you can expect from Your Dental Implant

Dental implants generally take a couple of weeks to heal. During this time, your jaw bone will actually be fusing with the titanium root of the implant in a very special process called ‘osseointegration.’ Thanks to this phenomenon, once healing is complete, the dental implant will be firmly planted in your jaw bone, just like the rest of your natural teeth! This is part of what makes dental implants so strong and able to withstand natural biting forces.

Dental implants in Arizona enable patients to eat most foods. There are certain things you’ll have to be wary of if you want to prevent damaging your ceramic crown, such as chewing ice or sticky sweets, but you should be avoiding these anyway. Otherwise, your dental implant will enable you to eat all the foods you love and to smile as much as you want!

After a set recovery period, you will need to return to the dentist to have your temporary crown replaced with a permanent crown. This will be fitted to facilitate a snug bite relationship between the lower and upper jaw. And that’s it!

Do Dental Implants Hurt?

Once they’ve healed, dental implants feel just like natural teeth. If they cause any pain or discomfort, there is something wrong and you should arrange an appointment with your dentist as soon as possible. Anesthesia is generally used during the placement of dental implants, so the procedure shouldn’t hurt at all. There can be some post-operative swelling and discomfort in the days following surgery, but this is easily managed with the medications prescribed to you by your dentist.

Overall, any pain or discomfort associated with the placement of dental implants is totally manageable and should not be a cause for concern. If you are especially worried about this, speak to your dentist beforehand and they will go to additional measures to ensure that your experience is as pain and anxiety free as possible.