Dental Implants in Mississauga

Dental Implants: What to Consider

Dental implants provide alternatives to poorly fitting dentures or if natural tooth roots don’t permit other repair procedures or bridgework. They offer significant tooth support because the bone heals around your implant during recovery. However, the entire process can take several months to complete.

Dentures aren’t the best solution for replacing missing teeth, as they can easily trap food, leading to oral infections or gum decay. They can also be thicker than natural teeth and affect your bite, making speaking challenging. Bridgework and dentures have a 15–20% failure rate within ten years, whereas implants have a 2% failure rate over the same time frame.

The long-term success of receiving dental implants in Mississauga depends on the forces available to act as support. Patients don’t feel pressure when biting because there is no periodontal attachment. Therefore, the forces generated are higher. 

To offset this phenomenon, implants must distribute their focus evenly across the mouth. Concentrated force results in fractures of the implant’s components or generates bone loss adjacent to the implant. Therefore, the ultimate implant location is significant.

Implants embedded in thicker, stronger bone, like the front part of your bottom jaw, have a higher success rate than those placed in lower-density bone, like the back part of your upper jaw. People with bruxism (teeth grinding) may require a night guard to reduce the force placed on implants.

Dental Implant Treatment Procedures

At Bristol Dental Clinic, our implant dentists carefully examine your case, educate you on the success rate, establish treatment plans, and estimate costs before placing the implant into your mouth. Most implant placements incorporate five basic steps:

1. Soft Tissue Reflection: A dentist makes an incision over the crest of the bone, splitting the edges of tissue (known as creating a flap) and pushing it back to expose the bone. An alternate technique called flapless surgery involves removing a small portion of tissue (the diameter of the implant) for placement rather than raising flaps.
2. High-Speed Drilling: Precision drills create pilot holes at a highly regulated speed after reflecting the soft tissue using a surgical guide or stent.
3. Low-Speed Drilling: Pilot holes are progressively expanded using more comprehensive drills (typically between three and seven successive drilling steps, depending on implant width/length). Special attention is given to avoid damaging bone cells through overheating. Cooling saline sprays assist in keeping temperatures low.
4. Implant Placement: An implant screw helps screw the implant into place at a precise torque to avoid overloading the surrounding bone.
5. Tissue Adaptation: The gum adapts around the entire implant, providing a thick band of healthy tissue around the healing abutment.

Since implants are placed directly in your jawbone, artificial teeth attached to the implants appear and act like regular teeth. Much like normal teeth, implants require daily cleaning using a toothbrush and floss. Your dentist will inform you of proper cleaning procedures for your implants. 

Regular check-ups at a dental implant clinic in Mississauga are necessary, so your dentist can ensure you have the correct bite and the implants aren’t loose.