About Dental Implants in Mexico
Dental implants are one of the optimum methods for tooth replacement. To give a simple explanation of how a dental implant works, a titanium post is screwed into the jawbone, and after 3 - 4 months of healing, an abutment is screwed onto the top of the implant, and a porcelain crown is seated on top of the abutment. The process of putting in the implant is rather quick, and multiple implants can usually be placed with just one office visit.
Here are a couple of benefits of Tijuana dental implants:
1. The implant can keep you from suffering bone loss. The implant acts like the roots of a tooth, because it holds the bone. When a tooth is extracted, in a few years, the bone begins to dissolve away. The resulting bone loss can even begin to compromise the roots of the adjacent teeth, and cause them to come loose and fail. When a tooth is replaced by a fixed bridge, it will not stop the bone loss from the extracted tooth, and years down the road, you may have problems. However, when a tooth is replaced with an implant, the bone loss is arrested.
2. The implant does not require grinding down the adjacent teeth, like is necessary with a fixed bridge. To crown a tooth, you have to grind it down to fit inside the cap. Using a fixed bridge requires the dentist to cap the adjacent teeth, thus having to reduce them into an abutment. Although the same teeth may eventually need to be capped, if they are currently healthy, they will last longer if they aren't capped prematurely. Since an implant is put in as an individual tooth replacement, the adjacent teeth are left alone.
3. There is better dental hygiene with an implant compared to a fixed bridge. Since you can't floss between crown with a fixed bridge, you can't clean under the edges of the gums with floss. Also food partials can get trapped under a fixed bridge. A dental implant makes a stand alone tooth, and you can floss between the implanted tooth and the adjacent teeth.
4. Longevity with an implant is much longer. With a fixed bridge, something can go wrong with the abutment teeth, requiring replacement. A cavity could form under the edge of the crown on one of the teeth, requiring the removal of the bridge, to fix the cavity, or do a root canal, and thus the bridge is ruined, and has to be replaced. Since the implant is made of titanium, it can't get a cavity. Unless you have bad hygiene, don't take care of your mouth, and/or get periodontal disease, and suffer major bone loss, implants should last for the rest of your life.
Bone grafting: Sometimes there is the additional cost of bone grafting when implants are placed.
There are different types of bone grafting needed when implants are placed. A bone graft is used to fill in an area where there is a need for more bone. A individual graft is needed to fill in the hole left by extracting a tooth. When a tooth has been extracted for awhile, the root holes will fill in by themselves, and no bone graft is needed. However, sometimes at the time of implantation, it may need a little more bone. If too much time has gone by and bone loss has occurred, it would also require more bone. Many times, the patient will need extractions, and for most of the teeth, the dentist can do a bone graft immediately upon extraction, and then immediately place the implant.Sometimes the hole left upon extraction is bigger than the size of the implant. This is true for all multi-root teeth, such as pre-molars and molars, and even on some of the larger front teeth. When patients have had multiple teeth for many years they will sometimes need larger grafting procedures such as a sinus lift. For large grafts, even for individual grafts that are filling a big hole, such as left by the extraction of a molar, the graft will have to set for 2 to 6 months before implantation,
A. Individual grafts: Some patients need to have teeth extracted and the hole left by the extracted tooth roots is bigger than the implant. This makes some grafting is needed to fill in the hole. If the hole is too big, such as what is left by the extracting of a molar, then the bone grafting must be left to set up and heal for a few months before the implant can be placed. However, when it is a pre-molar, or one of the single root teeth, if a filler graft is needed, the implant can be placed at the same time as the extraction and the placing of the graft. Some of the smaller one root teeth can be implanted without a bone graft filler.B. Sinus Lifts, and grafting for lower quadrants are needed when there is a lot of bone loss. Sometimes the amount of bone left is not thick enough to hold an implant. These larger grafts build up the bone to a thickness where it is possible to place an implant. When these larger grafts are placed, usually the healing time required before implants can be placed is up to 6 months. the specialist will have to determine this at the time of the oral surgery.Multiple implant procedures: Implants are not just for replacing individual teeth, but can be used for multiple teeth.
A. Implants and fixed bridges. When more than two adjacent teeth need replacing, we can often use a multi-tooth fixed bridge over two implants, and thus reduce the overall cost of the treatment, eliminating one or two implants Depending on bone density, when the missing teeth are in the front of the mouth, a 4 unit fixed bridge over two implants may work. If the missing teeth are molars, a three unit bridge over two implants may be used. Since there is a lot more pressure on the grinding teeth, it is not recommended to use more than a three unit bridge on two implants for molars. B. Whole arch replacement. By use of bridges, we can replace 12 teeth of an arch with just 8 implants. There is also the method of mounting all the crowns to a bar, and anchoring the bar with 6 to 8 implants. With this method we can replace all 14 teeth.C. Implant supported dentures. When a person doesn't have adequate bone for a lot of implants, or if they are on a tighter budget, one way of replacing all their teeth is with dentures supported by implants. With 3 implants per arch, although 4 are better, we can make a denture with "O" ring connectors that snap on to locators that are mounted on the top of the implant. This system of dentures supported by implants works very well because the denture is held very firmly, does not move when you talk, and you can eat almost anything. Why implants are better than fixed bridges:
One of the problems we suffer when teeth are extracted is bone loss. If you could see an x-ray of a person who has had a tooth extracted a number of years ago, you would see how the bone in the area of where the tooth was, has started dissolving away. When a fixed bridge has been placed on the adjacent teeth to where the tooth had been extracted, bone loss will still occur. The result is that eventually the bone loss will also effect the stability of the anchor teeth of the bridge. A dental implant acts like the roots of the teeth. It will hold the bone, and keep it from being lost. Another thing to consider is when the adjacent teeth are prepared for a bridge, they have to be ground down, and thus damaging them. With a dental implant, it is not necessary to do anything to the adjacent teeth. dental implants will cost a lot more than a fixed bridge, but the benefits exceed the extra cost.
Procedures not recommended: We have had inquiries about mini-implants for dentures, as well as "teeth in a day", also known as immediate load implants. These are procedures we do not recommend.
1. Mini-implants: The mini-implants are small implants that are used sometimes to anchor dentures. the way they are used is for immediate use. However, because they have a high failure rate, we do not use them. First, the immediate use of the implant does not allow the bone to knit to the implant, and they will eventually work loose. Also, because the are so thin, they will not hold up to long term use. the only recommended use of an immediate implant is for a temporary application.
2. Immediate load implants are designed to be placed, and have the abutments put on to take impressions for crowns immediately, instead of waiting the 3-4 months healing time required with traditional implants. The problem is, because the implants are put in use immediately, the bone does not knit to the implants properly. The immediate load implants will usually work loose in about 5 years. Because we guarantee our implant placements, we will not use immediate load implants, unless the patient fully understands the risk of implant failure. When we go the route of the traditional delayed load implants, giving the bone the time required to heal, generally, your implants should be good for life..
Our implant dentist: We use Dr. Arnulfo Vazquez to do all our implant procedures. He is highly trained, has both a DDS as well as an MD as a dental surgeon. He received his implant training in the US at the University of Minnesota during a two year residency program, and has studied bone grafting at UCLA. He has done thousands of dental implants with a 98% success rate, and he will guarantee his implant placements for life. He even teaches dental implant classes to other dentists. He is recognized in the dental community of Tijuana as one of the best implant dentists in the city.
Dental Art International, your Tijuana dentist in Mexico!
