It’s bad enough suffering the loss of your teeth, let alone suffering the indignity of never knowing when your replacement teeth are going to let you down by doing a rumba in your mouth or even falling out. Wobbly false teeth are only funny for the onlookers, not the wearer.

However, there is a way to get replacement teeth that allow you to keep your dignity and your food choices, and your lovely strong jawbone, and that solution is dental implants.

At Farnham Road Dental Practice in Guildford, we have been seeing more and more of our patients choose dental implants to replace lost teeth. Dental implants have one big advantage over dentures and bridges in that they are fixed into the jaw, rather than relying on the gums or neighbouring teeth for stability.

How dental implants work

Dental implants are small tapered screws or posts that replace tooth roots. To put them into your jawbone, the dental surgeon opens up a flap in your gum and carefully drills a hole into your jawbone. It sounds a lot more painful than it is, and the pain is easily controlled with a local anaesthetic as there are very few nerve endings in the bone. Pain is not the same as anxiety however, so you can have sedation to relax you during the procedure.

Once the implant is in place, the bone around it grows new bone cells and blood vessels all over it. This takes several weeks, but will eventually hold the dental implant in place as securely as a natural tooth in its socket.

Crowns, bridges and even dentures can then be attached to the implants. One implant can hold up to 3 teeth on a bridge and it only takes 4-6 implants to secure an entire arch of teeth (4 for the lower, 6 for the upper).

Maintenance

Looking after your dental implants is important and easy. All you need is to brush and floss them thoroughly twice a day to get rid of food and plaque. Couple this with regular trips to the hygienist for plaque removal and your implants can last for decades.