Dental Implants – Muskegon, MI

Initial Dental Implant Consultation

Before we can confirm your eligibility to receive dental implants, we’ll need to first complete a dental implant consultation. During this appointment, we’ll examine your mouth and evaluate the current status of your oral health. We’ll also address any concerns you may have as well as answer questions about the procedure. If we determine you are able to begin your dental implant treatment, we’ll get you scheduled for surgery at a later date as well as offer tips to help you prepare in advance.

Dental Implant Surgery

Before beginning your dental implant surgery, our team will administer a local anesthetic to your mouth to ensure no sensations are felt during treatment. At most, you will only feel light pressure during the placement (and extraction, if applicable). Once fully numbed (as well as given any dental sedation if requested), we will start by opening up your gum tissue, then place the implant directly into your jaw. Next, the gum tissue is stitched closed so the integration process can begin. You’ll be given specific aftercare instructions to follow to ensure the most comfortable recovery period possible.

Dental Implant Osseointegration & Abutment

The titanium post placed inside of your jaw is biocompatible, meaning it will integrate with your bone and soft tissue without worry of being rejected by the body as a foreign object. However, the process of osseointegration (or fusing of jawbone tissue with the implant) will take anywhere between three and six months to complete. Once you’ve healed and your implant has fully fused, you’ll come back to our office to have an abutment attached. This metal connector acts as a foundation for your permanent restoration. When the abutment is placed, we’ll wait an additional two to three weeks so the gum tissue can heal around it.

Delivery of Dental Implant Restoration(s)

At your final dental implant appointment, we’ll attach your crown, bridge, or denture to your dental implant(s) and make any adjustments to the restoration as needed before sending you on your way. Your new tooth is designed to blend in exactly with your neighboring teeth, ensuring that it looks like a natural part of your smile. Only you and our office should notice that you had teeth replaced!

Day-to-Day Benefits

Once your implants are placed and restored, they can improve your everyday life by allowing you to:

• Eat all of your favorite foods – At most, a traditional denture only brings back about 20% of your original chewing power. It also covers the roof of your mouth, interfering with your sense of taste. Dental implants replenish most of your biting force and do not cover your palate, letting you chew and taste your favorite foods with ease.
• Smile with confidence – Implant restorations are designed to complement your unique facial structure and resemble the pearly whites you once had. You can also trust that unlike conventional dentures, implant-supported teeth will never slip out of place because they are secured in your jaw.
• Speak clearly – Dentures don’t prevent the jawbone from deteriorating after tooth loss in the way that dental implants in Muskegon do. Eventually, they lose their snug fit and slide around in the mouth. This may cause you to slur your words or produce a clicking sound when trying to talk. Implant-retained teeth will remain firmly in place, resulting in clear speech.
• Enjoy easy maintenance – With the exception of a removable implant denture, dental implant restorations can be cared for through regular brushing and flossing, just like natural teeth.

Health Benefits

Dental implants offer some outstanding oral health benefits, including:

• Preventing jawbone loss – When a tooth is missing, that area of the jawbone deteriorates from lack of stimulation. Support for your remaining teeth may weaken, increasing your risk of additional tooth loss. Luckily, dental implants stimulate the jawbone just like natural teeth do.
• Stabilizing adjacent teeth – An empty space from a missing tooth can cause the surrounding teeth to shift toward the gap, leading to orthodontic issues, TMJ disorder, chewing problems, and difficulties replacing the lost tooth later on. Dental implants fill the gap and keep your remaining teeth stable.
• Minimizing the risk of gum disease – Food particles can get trapped in gaps between teeth, attracting bacteria that cause gum disease. Because dental implants fill these spaces, there is less room for food debris and bacteria to accumulate.
• Preserving natural teeth – To place a traditional dental bridge, the teeth on either side of the gap have to be filed down, leaving them weaker and more sensitive in the long run. Because dental implants are self-supporting, you can keep more of your natural tooth enamel.

Long-Term Benefits

While dental implants offer immediate advantages, they really shine over the long-term. As the years go by, you may experience the following:

• A more youthful appearance – Without tooth roots to stimulate the jawbone, it becomes unable to support your facial structures. Your face may sag and wrinkle, prematurely aging you. Dental implants keep your jawbone strong and you looking young.
• A longer lifespan – Missing teeth have been linked to health conditions like heart attack, stroke, and diabetes. Dental implants function like natural teeth, preventing these issues.
• A great deal of saved money and time – Dental implants can potentially last a lifetime, making them a better long-term investment than bridges or dentures that have to be repaired and replaced every few years. You’ll save quite a bit of money (and time) by not having to visit your implant dentist in Muskegon as often for adjustments.

Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery

In certain cases, you may need to complete preparatory procedures ahead of receiving dental implants. For example:

• Treatments like gum disease therapy, tooth extractions, and bone grafts could be needed, increasing the cost of your overall tooth replacement.
• Depending on how many dental implants you need, your surgery could be longer or shorter than average. This will drive your costs up further.
• Because we have a trained periodontist in-house who can place dental implants at the practice, you won’t need to travel to an offsite specialist who may have different surgical fees. This makes your final bill more compact and easy to understand.

The Parts of Your Dental Implant

The more implants you need to rebuild your smile, the more materials will be required to create the implants and have them placed. Dental implants are made from titanium, an incredibly strong, biocompatible material that fuses with jawbone tissue. This makes it a specialized material that doesn’t come cheap. However, the costs of implants can also vary depending on their make and manufacturer. Feel free to ask our periodontist about the dental implants we use if you’d like to learn more.

Final Dental Implant Restoration

Depending on your circumstances, you may need a restoration that is more or less complex. The more complex the restoration needs to be to rebuild your smile, the more materials, time, and effort will be necessary to create it. For example, single implant crowns are generally far less expensive than an implant bridge or denture. Every restoration we provide is made to be incredibly lifelike and last for many years, so you can expect your tooth replacement to meet your day-to-day needs without interruption.

Does My Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?

In most cases, dental implant treatment does not receive coverage from dental insurance plans. However, there are certain circumstances where you can get coverage for portions of your care. This includes preparatory treatments like gum disease therapy and extractions or restorative services like the crown, bridge or denture that attaches to the implant(s). Our team will go over any benefits you have and ensure your plan is being maximized to the fullest extent.

Making Dental Implants Affordable

Other solutions for making dental implants affordable are available at our office as well. One option that many patients consider is third-party financing from CareCredit, a service that lets you pay for dental treatments over the span of several months in low installments, generally with little to no interest attached. Alternatively, you can sign up for our in-house dental savings plan to receive discounts on certain services related to dental implant treatment as well as guaranteed preventive care as part of a subscription. We also currently have a special on dental implant placement you can take advantage of; just mention it during your consultation!

3D Cone Beam Imaging/3D CT Scanning

Planning dental implant surgery requires us to gather information about your jawbone and any underlying oral structures that we’ll need to work around during the procedure. Unfortunately, traditional X-rays aren’t usually enough in these circumstances; they have their uses in dentistry, but there’s only so much detail that can be captured by a two-dimensional picture of your mouth. That is why when it comes to placing dental implants, we use cone beam CT scanning instead.

The scanner will move around your head to capture hundreds of X-ray images in less than a minute. A powerful computer will then combine all of these images to create a virtual model that shows the entirety of your mouth and jaw. This model will help us determine exactly where your dental implants should be placed while avoiding any damage to the nerves or sinuses. It can also alert us to areas with low bone density so that we can decide whether you need bone grafts before your surgery.

Antibacterial Coating

Dental implant failure is very rare, but it does happen. One of the most likely causes is an infection of the gum and bone tissue that’s holding the implant in place. Bacteria can slowly break down these important tissues, causing your implant post to come loose. To give your implants the best chance of successfully integrating with your jawbone without an infection getting in the way, we place dental implants that have a special antibacterial coating applied.

The antibacterial coating helps prevent bacteria from accumulating on the surface of the implant. In some cases, it can also help kill harmful bacteria around the tooth. The advantage of using implants that have an antibacterial coating is that they make the recovery process after implants have been placed much safer for your mouth. You won’t have to worry as much about an infection occurring before your implants have fully joined with the jawbone. 

If you’re interested in learning more about CT scanning, antibacterial coating, and any other examples of advanced technology we might use during the dental implant process, give our office a call at any time.

What to Do Directly After Dental Implant Surgery

For at least a day or two after the surgical procedure, you need to rest from normal activities, especially strenuous ones like heavy lifting or exercising. In fact, you may want to have a friend or family member watch you at least during the 24 hours following the surgery.  Keep a clean piece of gauze on the site until a blood clot forms—make sure that clot stays there! It protects the site while the tissues underneath heal.

Common Side Effects

When the anesthetic wears off, it is normal to experience some discomfort, but it can typically be managed with over-the-counter pain medication as directed. You may also have some swelling—a cold compress can reduce this as well as numb the area for additional pain relief. Both the discomfort and the swelling should go away after a few days.

If your discomfort increases or doesn’t subside after a couple of days, if the blood clot comes off too soon after the procedure, or if you get a fever, you need to contact us. You could have an infection or another complication.

Diet

When you need to eat, have soft foods for several days after the procedure. Examples of allowable foods include yogurt, mashed potatoes, eggs, and oatmeal. Keep in mind that you should not use a straw for at least 48 hours following the procedure because this action could cause the clot to be removed prematurely. When a few days have passed since your procedure, you may begin reintroducing normal foods back into your diet, but be extra cautious with hard, crunchy foods.

Health & Oral Hygiene

Keeping your mouth clean is essential for smooth healing, which means that you should continue to brush and floss your teeth as you recover. However, for several days, you need to be gentle, especially around the surgical site. You may also rinse your mouth with warm saltwater to clean the site.

You can slowly resume your usual schedule as you feel up to it, but we recommend refraining from exercise for about 4 days to a week, depending on how you’re doing. Listen to your body and don’t push it too far.

What to Do After Your New Teeth Are Attached

Several months after the implant post has been placed, you may be ready for the restoration to be attached. When this happens, you could feel some sensitivity in your gum tissue and require a day or two to reacclimate to having such stable teeth that feel realistic. However, like riding a bike, it should come back to you quickly! If you struggle with discomfort beyond a couple of days, then it could be an issue with the fit or require our attention.

Make Oral Hygiene a Priority

Obviously, dental implants can’t get cavities. Unfortunately, the gum tissue that holds your implant in place can still become infected, and that can very easily lead to dental implant failure. As such, brushing and flossing are as important as ever for keeping the area around your dental implant healthy. Remember to brush at least twice a day and make sure that each brushing session lasts about two minutes. If you want to keep the risk of an infection to an absolute minimum, start rinsing with an ADA-approved mouthwash. 

Eat a Healthy Diet

Once dental implants restore most of your biting force, you’re free to eat whatever you want again, and that means you can choose a diet that will keep the tissues supporting your dental implant healthy and strong. Calcium is particularly important for maintaining your jawbone while vitamin C is good for your gums. In general, a balanced diet with plenty of lean proteins, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables can help create the best environment for your implants.

Break Bad Habits

When committing to getting dental implants, you’ll want to take note of any bad habits that could put your new teeth at risk and break them immediately. This means no smoking; tobacco can interfere with the osseointegration process and lead to gum infections. Also, you’ll need to avoid chewing on pen caps, fingernails, and other hard objects that can damage implant restorations. Finally, if you make it a habit to tear open packaging with your teeth, make the conscious effort to switch to using scissors instead so that you don’t do unnecessary damage to your smile.

Protect Your Dental Implants

As strong as dental implants are, they are not immune to damage. To keep them (and the rest of your teeth) safe, you should wear an athletic mouthguard when playing contact sports or participating in any sort of athletic activity where you could take a blow to the face. Also, if you grind your teeth at night, you should wear a nightguard to keep your implant from loosening.

Schedule Regular Dental Checkups

Dental implants, just like regular teeth, need to be examined every six months. At each checkup, we’ll make sure that the implants themselves are in good shape and check the state of the tissues around it. Early detection and thorough preventive care make it easier for us to stop problems with your implants from happening in the first place.

Who Is a Good Candidate for Dental Implants?

Not everyone qualifies for this complex replacement option at first. In fact, there are certain criteria you must meet in order to move forward with treatment, including:

• Good oral health : If you have gum disease or another oral condition, the chances of the jawbone successfully growing and surrounding the implant will be low.
• Enough jawbone density : Your jawbone needs to be sufficiently strong to support the implants. Otherwise, they will not stay in place or function as they should.
• Good overall well-being : Your health doesn’t to be perfect, but certain conditions, such as uncontrolled diabetes or osteoporosis, can interfere with your implants’ success.

Although not everyone makes a good candidate for implants initially, there are ways to remove impediments. For instance, we can administer gum disease therapy, perform a bone graft, or otherwise help you get back into a better position for implant treatment.

Missing One Tooth

A single tooth is fairly simple to replace—all you need is a single dental implant with a crown on top. This method of replacement is much more secure and longer lasting than a dental bridge. Its lifelike structure gives this replacement tooth a realistic appearance as well as reliable stability. In fact, no one should be able to tell that the tooth is prosthetic.

Missing Multiple Teeth

Did you know that you don’t have to replace each individual missing tooth? In fact, several teeth can be replaced with as few as two implants. Instead of attaching to natural teeth, which have to be altered for the restoration, implant bridges are bonded to implants embedded in the jawbone, replacing many teeth in a row. For smiles in need of partial dentures, strategically placed implants can hold a partial denture in place with more stability than a traditional denture.

Missing All Teeth

Even if you have no natural teeth left, dental implants can be used to change your life. With only four to six implants, an entire arch can be restored. Unlike traditional dentures that depend on suction, implant dentures are attached to dental implants, so you’ll find it much easier to bite and chew nutritious foods and feel more self-confidence. In addition, the few implants you have will prevent the jawbone loss that commonly occurs after natural teeth are missing.