Appointments
Our patients
Diagnosing implant suitability
Permanent replacement teeth
Anchoring dentures
How implants work
Low-stress, minimal access implant surgery
Pricing
For referring dentists
For referring denturists
Smoking and implants |
For centuries, tooth loss doomed a person to premature aging, speech difficulty,
a restricted diet and pain.Now, minimally invasive dental implant techniques
can provide anchorage for replacement teeth to solve these problems. Giving up favorite
activities and suffering years of pain, trouble and embarassement are no longer inevitable. |
From titanium to teeth
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In the 1950’s, Sweden’s Dr P I Brånemark
noticed that bone behaved unusually in contact with titanium: bone cells
deposited calcified bone directly on the surface of the metal rather than
on an intervening layer of connective tissue |
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He realized that this would
allow objects made of titanium to become solidly fixed to bone, and as
his research progressed, that titanium implants could be used to anchor
teeth |
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The original research gave rise to screw-type
titanium implants, which have been extensively used to anchor replacement
teeth |
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These first-generation implants are still in
use. They serve well in many situations, despite being rather long and
needing 6 months healing before replacement teeth can be attached |
Second generation implants
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Beginning in the mid-1980’s, Drs Pilliar, Deporter and Watson of the University of Toronto set about applying porous-surface
technology, which had just revolutionized hip implants, to dental implants
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| The size of a porous-surface
implant compared to an ordinary paperclip. |
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The research they participated in has given rise
to second-generation titanium implants, which employ porous-surface technology
to improve on screw-type implants |
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Porous-surface implants can support replacement
teeth 2 to 4 months sooner after surgery and can be used in patients who
have suffered more loss of jaw bone height |
How an implant becomes part of you
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When porous-surface implants are
embedded in a patient’s jaw, they are pressed into place in tapering holes
formed in the bone |
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Once the implants are firmly
in place and the gum is closed over or around them, bone cells called osteoblasts
begin depositing new bone directly on the tiny titanium spheres that make
up the implants’ external surfaces |
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This bone deposition directly on
titanium, called osseointegration, begins immediately as long as the implants
are undisturbed, and soon increases their fixation |
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As the implants become more solidly attached,
they can tolerate small amounts of force being applied to them |
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Small loads stimulate more bone formation, increasing
the implants’ solidity, making them able to bear larger loads which in
turn stimulate yet more bone formation |
Quick healing
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Practically speaking, this means that 10 days
after surgery it is possible to chew on the gum around the implants, or
to wear a denture a few hours a day as long as it is not used to chew |
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As osseointegration progresses, more and more
force can be applied to the gum around the implants, so that a denture
sitting over them can be used normally 4 weeks after surgery |
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We have our patients continue progressively loading
their implants so that when replacement teeth are connected, the implants
have undergone enough osseointegration to withstand light biting forces.
Patients may gradually increase biting forces so that they progress to
full loading 4 weeks after they get replacement teeth |
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