If you have lost several teeth, through accident, injury or decay, not only will you feel embarrassed about your smile, but also you may have difficulty eating many foods and even find your speech is affected. It can make it difficult to play certain musical instruments or play sports. You may also find that any remaining teeth move position to fill in any gaps, becoming crooked and more difficult to keep healthy.
There are several solutions for multiple missing teeth, including partial dentures and bridges. However, more and more patients are opting for dental implants, which provide a permanent, fixed solution to missing teeth while also promoting a healthy jaw bone. Without them, over time, the jaw bone starts to deteriorate.
A dental implant is a small, titanium screw that is placed directly into your jaw bone, where it fuses to it and prevents bone deterioration. It acts like a natural tooth root and supports replacement teeth, such as secured dentures or bridges.
The good news is, if you have several missing teeth, you may not need as many implants as replacement teeth. One implant can support more than one tooth. Depending on how many teeth you are missing and their location (whether they are next to each other), you could have two implants holding several replacement teeth.
At Redmond Dental Care, we use Bicon and Ankylos dental implants to replace several missing teeth. For patients who have suffered some bone deterioration, we use Bicon Short Implants, which are specially designed to work well for patients with lower bone quantity.
The Short Implant system avoids any damage to the nerves or sinuses and requires smaller holes in the bone. They have been widely and successfully used to treat patients across the world since 1985. In most cases, implants are placed under local anaesthetic, meaning while you may feel a slight pushing/pulling sensation (similar to having a tooth removed) you won’t feel any pain.
