When you have a missing tooth that you would like replacing you have 3 main options:

1. A dental implant
   
2. A bridge
   
3. A removable denture
   

The first two are fixed options and the third is a removable option

There are pros and cons which each of the above options and suitability will depend on your individual case which can be discussed with the dentist.

A dental implant is made of commercially pure titanium and replaces the root of your missing tooth. It is surgically placed into the site where the missing tooth once was and is left undisturbed for at least 12 weeks to allow it to heal and integrate with you bone before we can place the final Crown/tooth on top of it.

It is a fixed replacement for your missing tooth, it does not need to ‘piggy-back’ of neighbouring and is a standalone replacement for your missing tooth. It is the closest thing medical science has to your God given tooth. It has been in use since the 1960s with very high success rates in fit and healthy individuals. Being fixed they give you the best stability for improving your chewing functionality and nutrition after a while you wont even know you had a missing tooth.

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Yes, implants and the subsequent crown will give you a more solid foundation to be able to chew and eat your foot better

They will involve a minor surgical procedure to place them under local aesthetic. Sedation can also be opted for if you are particular anxious. The effects of any surgery in the mouth will mean a few days of discomfort, soreness and swelling after the procedure. It takes a minimum of 12 weeks for the implant to heal and integrate before we can take final impressions to fabricate and fit your replacement tooth.

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For you to be suitable for a dental implant you will need to have enough height and width of jaw bone in the region of the missing tooth in question. This is usually assessed prior to implant surgery with a 3D scan (or Cone Beam CT - ‘CBCT’ for short) where the height and width of your jaw bones can be assessed to determine your suitability.  Even if you have a deficiency in the bone quality and/or quantity you can still be eligible for a dental implant as we have many clever bone enhancement techniques which we can employ to help us give you a dental implant even in the most difficult of situations.

Other pre-requisities are that your mouth must be made dentally fit with excellent oral hygiene before embarking on treatment with dental implants

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Implants last for as long as teeth would last. Studies show that in fit and healthy individuals who don’t smoke and who have good levels of oral hygiene 10 year success rates for dental implants stand at 90% and 20 year success rates stand at 80%

Yes. Implants can fail in the short term (less than 5 years), medium term (5-10 years) or long term (10 years+). How long they last for will depend on your health, diet, medications you are on, how well you are able to keep them clean, genetics, whether you smoke, whether you grind and clench your teeth, conditions such as diabetes or anything else that compromises your immunity and so on an so forth.

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If the ‘implants’ God gave us did not last forever, then any artificial Implants that modern science can provide certainly won't. They will last for as long as your body is able to accept them based on the numerous factors mentioned above – however with exceptional care and attention it can last for years on end. We have seen numerous patients who have had dental implants for over 30 years without any issues.

Dental Implants can either fail to integrate in the first 12 weeks because the body rejects it which is very rare (<5%). If this occurs then we would just need to wait for a few more weeks for healing to take place before placing another implant into the healed site and there is every chance that it will successfully integrate the second time round..

In the medium and long term the main causes of failure are:

a) Gum disease around implants caused by the same disease process that affects teeth – this disease process is called Peri-implantitis where the bone around the implant dissolves away and is affected by your diet, genetics, habits such as smoking and also how well your teeth and implants are kept clean

b) Overloading of forces on the Implant caused by excessive grinding (bruxism) or clenching. This can be related to genetic pre-disposition, stress as well as other environmental factors.

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Bone grafting is required in implant surgery when there is either a deficiency in the quality and / or quantity of bone as assessed from a CBCT scan. In such cases supplementary bone particles are used to support, strengthen and supplement the missing voids in the jaw bone present whilst the implant is placed. This bone grafting material is usually derived with either a) bovine, b) Human or c) synthetic sources. Bone grafting is carried out in approx. 50% of all implant placements and can either be done 3-4 months prior to the surgical implant placement (in severe cases) or at the same time as the placement of the implant (in simpler cases).

There are certain situations in which bone grafting will almost always be required and these are for immediate dental Implants and Sinus lifts.

A sinus lift is a procedure that is sometimes required to be carried out either before or during the placement of implants in the back part of your upper jaw when there is an insufficient amount of bone present. If this becomes relevant your implant dentist will discuss this with you.

Not necessarily, if the conditions are favourable then 1 implant can support 2 teeth and this is known as a cantilever design. Similarly two implants spaced apart can replace 3-4 missing teeth andthis is known as an Implant bridge.

For those with no teeth 4 implants spaced apart can replace 12 missing teeth.

All of this depends on the amount of available bone and force mechanics and is specific to the individual concerned

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The costs are split into 3 phases: Planning prior to surgery, the surgery itself to place the Implant in place and the for fabrication of the crown some 3 months later

The cost of the planning comprises a check up with x-rays, CBCT scan and diagnostic stents and costs £200-£300.

The cost of the implant surgery costs: £995 per implant.

The cost of a conventional implant crown is £995 and the abutment is £300 making the Crown and abutment combination cost £1295

Additional and optional costs if required/selected include that of bone grafting, sinus lifts and sedation.

You are of course welcome to get the work done abroad, however if you get any complications in either the short, medium or long term then you will most likely have to travel back to where you got the work done to get the issues resolved. If you find implant dentists in the UK who are willing to take on remedial work on implants done elsewhere then the costs are usually much higher.

When you pay for dental implants- you are not just paying for a commodity bought off a shelf but rather a wholistic package which includes the skill, expertise and experience of the team looking after you, the surgical procedure itself, the quality of the materials used, all follow ups and aftercare, dealing with any issues that may arise after the procedures as well as the quality of the implant system itself amongst a myriad other factors.

There are over 1300 implant systems on the market which all differ in terms of quality of the product, the range of implant sizes and shapes available, the research and development of the implant manufacturer, how long the company has been around for, the track record of the implant itself and much more. The costs of each thus varies based on the above factors – it really is a matter of “you get what you pay for”. You also want to have the assurance that should complications arise in future then the implant company who has manufactured your implant will still be in existence many years later and the component parts will still be available to remedy any future issues

The implants we use at our clinic are Straumann based implants which are currently ranked as the number one implant system in the world

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