Improve Your Health & Confidence with Dental Implants
Dental implants are a time-tested treatment that allows patients to replace teeth that have been lost to decay, fracture, or gum disease. Many times, because Oakmont Family Dental places the implants as well as restores them, the cost can be nearly the same as filling the space with a bridge. The advantages of implants are many:
- They chew like natural teeth
- Look like natural teeth
- Can be cleaned like natural teeth (no need to thread floss under the bridge!).
If a tooth in your mouth is lost, in most cases it’s important to replace it early to prevent bone loss or shifting of the remaining teeth. Bone loss negatively affects the esthetic result when replacing a tooth that has been lost. We strongly emphasize implant therapy because of the overwhelming 10-year success rate, which is greater than 90%!
Dental implants can also retain and support dentures. Whether you are a long-time denture wearer or getting your first denture, the placement of dental implants to retain and support dentures is becoming the standard of care. If your current denture moves or falls out if it doesn’t quite chew like you would want it to, please inquire about what we can do to add dental implants to your denture to improve your quality of life. Even the best conventional denture (no implants) can be expected to deliver 10% of the chewing force that natural teeth can deliver. By adding dental implants to your denture that can be increased by over 50%, allowing you to eat foods that you didn’t think possible. There are even ways that we can eliminate dentures, and restore your chewing force to 90%. Implant-supported or implant-retained dentures can be a significant improvement to the quality of your life!
The procedure for receiving a dental implant is less involved than many think. Under most circumstances, you could receive an implant with local anesthesia (the same you would get for a filling) in our office. The appointment lasts a little over an hour. Most times, there is little post-operative pain or recovery after the dental implant is placed. If we replace a front tooth, many times we can put a temporary crown on the implant and you walk out with a tooth in place! Otherwise, we plan to put the final crown (tooth) in place 3-6 months later after it has totally healed. The appointment to get the crown is short and we then send your case out to a lab where they make a beautiful porcelain crown to fit onto the implant. You will be impressed with the whole process.
Please inquire about photographs of cases completed by Dr. McLaughlin and his dedicated staff using our Eugene Dentist contact form.
