Dental Implants | Athens, GA
Are you struggling to chew your favorite food because of a missing tooth? Does it make you feel uncomfortable and less confident when talking to friends, colleagues, and clients? While having missing teeth can hamper your daily activities, there’s a permanent solution to your problem — dental implants. Athens, GA, and surrounding areas are served by William Rice, DDS, who can provide you with the best dental implants in the area – ensuring a wider, whiter, and more beautiful smile!
What Are Dental Implants?
Dental implants serve as strong tooth root replacements designed to complement your natural teeth. Compatible with human biology, titanium alloy is integrated into your jaw. Tooth replacements are fitted on top of screw-like implants without the need for support from your other teeth.
Working like your normal teeth, these dental implants allow you to eat well, improve your speech, and enjoy a brighter smile. Known for offering high-quality and consistent dentistry services in Athens, GA, Dr. Rice gives you the best dental implants with care and precision.
Different Dental Implant Services
Wondering how many teeth can be replaced with dental implants? Depending on your needs and the condition of your teeth, you can have one, two, or multiple dental implants:
- One tooth: If you are missing one tooth, we will integrate a single implant into your jawbone. Then, the crown goes on top to make it look like a real tooth.
- Several teeth: If you lost three to five teeth, this doesn’t mean you need an implant for each tooth. We will place one implant on either end with a bridge of crowns. So, two dental implants may replace a maximum of five teeth.
- All teeth: If you lost all your teeth, you would only need four to six implants for the entire row, depending on the jawbone volume and density. These are permanent teeth and root replacements, which means you can enjoy a charming smile and functional teeth for a prolonged period with little maintenance required.
How Do Dental Implants Work?
Unlike dentures, cosmetic dentistry procedures like dental implants allow you to have tooth replacements that look and feel natural. Considering you have healthy gums and jawbone, you can undergo dental implants. The surgery usually includes the following:
- Placing of implants: Implants that look like cylinders or screws are placed into your jaw. Usually, it takes two to six months for the implants and the bone to be integrated.
- Abutment: In this phase, our experienced dentists will reopen your gum to check the dental implant. The abutment is attached to the implant — usually performed as a minor surgery requiring local anesthesia.
- Choosing new permanent teeth: Given that your gums have healed, you can pick your permanent tooth or crown. This can be removable, fixed, or a combination of the two. The removable type allows you to clean your teeth regularly. Permanently screwed into the abutment, the fixed dental implant can’t be removed for cleaning.
Recovery time can take several months depending on your dental health and the number of implants performed. It is also necessary to follow proper dental hygiene, like brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing.
How You Benefit From Removable Tooth Replacement
While you can choose from removable and fixed teeth replacement, many pick the former for the following reasons:
- Removable implants are often more comfortable.
- While removable like dentures, they are more stable and won’t slip during conversations or meals.
- Clearing out food particles and deep cleaning is easier.
- A removable prosthesis is often more cost-effective than a fixed one.
- If your oral health changes over time, removable teeth can be adjusted or replaced as needed without major surgery.
The flexibility of removable, “snap-on” dentures affixed to dental implants makes them an appealing choice. However, fixed dental implants are also able to be cleaned with specialized tools and are more permanent.
Dental Implants: Why They’re Crucial to Patients’ Oral Health
Investing in dental implants helps you maintain your overall oral health. Particularly, the procedure offers the following:
- Prevents shifting of teeth: Bone loss may result from a missing tooth. To help keep bone density, form, and volume, you need dental implants from reliable dentists like William Rice, DDS. With the procedure, gaps are filled so you won’t have to worry about your other healthy teeth becoming unstable or shifting.
- Facilitates clearer speech: Dental implants function like natural teeth. Thus, any patient will be able to talk more comfortably and confidently.
- Makes chewing easier: Because dental implants work like your normal teeth, you can chew any food you like. Apart from enjoying every bite, you will also experience improved digestion.
- Helps avoid gum diseases: Gaps from missing teeth can trap bacteria and food, which may result in gum disease.
Why You Should Get Dental Implants for Missing Teeth
Undergoing dental implants comes with benefits that will impact not just your oral health but also your overall well-being. These include the following benefits:
- A better smile: With quality dental implants, you’ll never hesitate to give your widest smile.
- All the functions of natural teeth: Dental implants work like normal teeth, so you can eat and talk properly.
- Boosted confidence: With dental implants that match your natural teeth, you’ll feel more confident when facing people. You also get to smile without any hesitation, knowing that you look better and feel better.
- Prevention of bone loss: Roots help promote bone growth. Given that dental implants replace the tooth root, they offer the stimulation necessary for bone regeneration, thus preventing bone loss.
- Promotion of comfort: Compared to dentures, implants are more comfortable. Also, you can eat or speak well without any pain or discomfort.
- Reduced facial sagging: Replacing missing teeth with cosmetic dentistry like dental implants will help prevent facial sagging from bone loss. With missing teeth, wrinkles may occur around the mouth and the chin becomes more pointed, creating an older look.
- Permanence: While several dentistry treatments are available, dental implant surgery gives you a permanent solution to missing teeth. With the best dentists like Dr. Rice, you will get natural-looking dental implants bound to last a lifetime.
- Whiter teeth and improved oral health: Unlike tooth-dependent bridges, dental implants do not need support from other teeth, keeping your teeth healthy and intact. Oral hygiene is also maintained, given the easy access between each tooth from individual dental implants.
Dental Implants | Athens, GA: Why Choose Our Dentistry Services
When looking for orthodontic and other dentistry treatment and services, you would want to choose the most experienced professionals, like William Rice, DDS. We offer the best dental care through the following:
- Recognized as the best dentist in Athens, GA
- Guaranteed patient satisfaction
- Excellent cosmetic dentistry skills
- Quick and pain-free tooth implants
- Wide range of dentistry services — including dental implants, teeth whitening, veneers, root canals, and restorative dentistry
Proper Patient Care With Dental Implants
Bad oral hygiene can make the implant come loose or cause bacterial infections, so make sure to:
- Brush your teeth and floss daily
- Undergo regular professional cleaning
- Use a nightguard (as grinding teeth can loosen the implant)
Experience Top-Notch Dental Implants With Our Professional Services
Having missing teeth can lead to low self-esteem, gum issues, facial aesthetic problems, and difficulty eating or speaking. Say goodbye to these problems by getting patient-centered, dental implants at William Rice, DDS. Make an appointment with Dr. Rice today and experience the best dentistry treatment and services! Contact us: Dental Implants – Athens, GA