Dental Implants
Missing teeth can be embarrassing, leading to hidden smiles and lost self-esteem. The gaps can become infected, cause other teeth to shift, and make speaking or eating difficult. The team at Elliott.N.Abrams D.D.S understands these hardships and offers dental implants to help patients regain self-confidence, improve their health, and live boldly.
Installing implants is a complex procedure to replace missing teeth safely and naturally. We strive to enhance our patients' experience and offer natural-looking, beautiful solutions for restoring missing teeth.
The Process of Installing Implants
If you lose a tooth, you might be eligible for dental implants. To find out, schedule an appointment at our Los Angeles office by calling 213-353-4723. We will examine your mouth and jawbone to ensure your gums are healthy and your jawbone is strong enough for the procedure. If necessary, we will treat any cavities or gum disease beforehand. Once cleared, we will take an impression of your mouth to create a perfectly matched synthetic tooth. Many patients find the results natural-looking and satisfying.
Dental Implants
The next step involves implanting a metal post under the gum line, securing it to the jawbone to create a durable synthetic root. This process sets implants apart from other cosmetic dentistry forms. Over a few months, the post fuses with the jawbone, providing exceptional durability and resistance to infection.
After the post fuses with the jawbone, we will attach the new synthetic tooth to the post. This secure attachment allows patients to eat, stay active, play sports, and more without worrying about the tooth becoming loose or falling out.
We provide dental implants in a way that is comfortable and functional. We take the time to make sure that every aspect of the procedure is completed correctly – the first time.
Related Topics
- Dental Implants
- Dentures and Partial Dentures
- Full Mouth Reconstruction
- Root Canal Treatment
- Smile Makeover
Explore additional topics covered on our website
Caring for Dental Implants
Once implants are installed, they are easy to care for. Patients often ask if implants come out or how to brush their teeth. Since implants have a synthetic root system, they are durable and secure, allowing for an active lifestyle without worry. Care involves brushing and flossing like normal and scheduling dental exams and cleanings twice a year. While implants cannot become infected, surrounding teeth can. Severe gum disease or dental abscesses can spread to the jawbone, jeopardizing implants and other teeth. Regular dental visits help ensure overall oral health.
If you currently have implants and your teeth start to hurt, call 213-353-4723 to schedule an appointment immediately. This way we can identify any infection and treat it before it can spread into the jawbone. As long as you follow these simple preventative care steps, your implants and natural teeth should remain in good health.
Consultation
To find out if implants are right for you, call 213-353-4723. We provide personalized recommendations tailored to your needs. Our friendly staff will inform you of all options. With our professional implant dentist, you can achieve a beautiful, natural-looking smile. If you have missing teeth, we can help transform your smile. Schedule an appointment and let us enhance your smile's beauty.
Dental Implants FAQ
Generally, this is not a good idea. We find that it is generally much better not to attach implants to teeth. We frequently attach implants to each other, which can improve strength and works well. So in a case like this, although it may be more expensive in the short term to place two implants instead of one, the long-term success is likely to be much better with the two implants.
In a large majority of people who are missing their upper back teeth for a long period of time, is the increasing downward growth of the maxillary sinus. At birth, it is the size of a pea and progressively grows as the skull matures. This growth is at the expense of the surrounding bone. If you are considering replacing those upper back teeth with fixed teeth that stay in all the time, it may be necessary to perform a sinus elevation procedure to allow room for placement of dental implants into this area to support those teeth. This involves placement of bone and/or bone substitutes into an area which was previously occupied by the lower part of the maxillary sinus. Most importantly, this procedure increases the available bone use to place implants and restore the missing back teeth.
In most cases, with the new options available today in the field of dental implants, some form of treatment is possible. We encourage people to get help as soon as possible if they are already having some problems with their current situation. These problems include excessive use of denture adhesives, chewing only soft food, unable to taste some foods, constant mouth sores, unhappy with the appearance of one's teeth and bite position (in some cases the nose and chin getting closer together). The sooner we correct the problems with dental implants, the more choices one has available for treatment. If you have any or all of the above symptoms, implants can very well be the answer for you.
It is not necessary to have an implant for every tooth that is being replaced. The number of implants necessary to provide support depends on the type of implants used and the type of teeth (removable vs. non- removable) that will be attached to the implants. A thorough oral exam and panoramic x-ray is all that is necessary in most cases, to determine which implant can be used and how many must be used. Sometimes additional X-rays or CT scans are used in more complicated cases.
Because of the advances in the field of implantology, there are now more choices and techniques. It is rare for a person to not be able to receive an implant or a combination of implants. Today we have available many types of implants designed to accommodate multiple problems.
Teeth that have root canals can fracture more easily than other teeth because they are weaker and somewhat dehydrated. They can sometimes be as brittle as glass. In the past, the best available treatment was to remove the tooth and file down the adjacent teeth to make a bridge - caps on the adjacent teeth with an attached "dummy" tooth between. Sometimes this still is the only way. However, in many cases an implant can replace the fractured tooth and we will not need to grind down a tooth to at all.
