Doctor’s answers to popular questions about dental implants

How long does the implantation process take (from preparation to installation)?

If necessary, we are able to work in the shortest possible time, but the preparation procedure remains unchanged. If it is about only one tooth and the situation is generally obvious, it is enough to take an X-ray with a marker to determine the length of the implant. But more often it happens that an X-ray is not enough — a computerized tomography needs to be done, on the basis of which the doctor determines the number of implants, their location, length and diameter. In order to draw up a treatment plan, it takes up to 2 hours (in particularly difficult cases – 3 hours). The doctor discusses this plan with the patient step by step, explaining what should happen and when. The operation is scheduled for a day and time convenient for the patient.

Usually, the installation of implants is not urgent, it is a planned surgical intervention. Therefore, on average, the schedule is as follows: an initial consultation, the next day — a CT scan, a couple of days later — a second consultation, and a week after the initial one — implantation surgery. But if it is necessary to reduce the time as much as possible, it will look like this:

• 9:00 a.m. — initial consultation;
• 10-00 — computer tomography;
• 12:00 p.m. — repeat consultation regarding the treatment plan;
• after 13:00 — implantation.

If the patient wants an operation under sedation, he must pass tests and visit an anesthetist’s consultation the day before, and come immediately on an empty stomach on the day of the operation. Thus, the minimum period of preparation and implantation is a day or two. Moreover, in some cases, when it was possible to install an implant with a greater initial load, the patient can even leave with a temporary crown. Next, time is needed for the implant to take root, after which the next visit is scheduled to install a permanent crown that will withstand the maxillofacial load:

• 3 months if the implant is installed on the lower jaw;
• 6 months — for the upper jaw;
• 9 months — after bone plastic surgery.

As long as osseointegration (implant implantation) continues, additional visits to the dentist are not required.

Is dental implant placement painful?

Installing an implant does not hurt in any case, because we have modern and high-quality painkillers. We offer two options for anesthesia for dental implantation:

local — allows you to reliably anesthetize the wound area, but the stress factor remains, because all manipulations take place in front of the patient. If the doctor has to work with the distal teeth, this adds to the discomfort, because the patient cannot fully relax the muscles to allow the surgeon access. It is used in simple cases when it is necessary to install an implant in clean bone tissue;
sedation is a drug-induced sleep during which the patient breathes on his own, but does not feel anything. It is usually recommended in more complex cases, such as multiple implants. Treatment under sedation allows to eliminate the stress factor and improve the speed and quality of surgical intervention.

The surgeon provides recommendations on which anesthesia should be chosen in a specific case, but the patient himself chooses.

How long will the implants last?

If the implant is installed correctly, is completely inside the bone, the crown does not protrude and is adjusted to the height of the tooth row, then it can be in the oral cavity and perform its functions throughout life. Of course, if the person himself does not put an inadequate load on the maxillofacial apparatus. The implant is not alive, and the person does not feel the force of jaw compression as with their own healthy teeth. That is why you should not chew with crowns and implants what you would not chew with your teeth (nuts, bones). At the same time, there is no problem with eating, for example, barbecue or an apple.

The same is true for the crown. Usually, the tooth itself cannot withstand too much load, while there are really no complaints about the crown: it remained intact, did not split and did not change color.

How much does the installation of a dental implant cost and what does the cost depend on?

You can get acquainted with the prices for installing implants in Odesa on our website at any time or by contacting the administrator. We have implants from three manufacturers (premium-class — Nobel, mid-price category — B&B Dental, economy-class implants — INNO), installation of each — for a fixed price.

However, when calculating the cost of implantation, you should not rely only on the price, because a person is not able to independently assess the situation in his own oral cavity. Even if she previously consulted with another dentist, each specialist has his own vision and approach. Before dental implantation, it is important to rehabilitate inflammation and cure caries. Therefore, after a consultation and computer tomography, our doctor forms a treatment plan, and the administrator already calculates the cost of all manipulations.

How long can you walk with implants without crowns?

A permanent crown on an implant should be installed, if not within the period prescribed by the doctor, then at least within a year. If prosthetics is not done, then nothing will happen to the implant, but the adjacent teeth will shift and there will be no place to install a permanent crown.

How long does the implant take root on the lower jaw?

In fact, this formulation of the question is not correct, because it is not the implant itself, which is made of titanium and is not alive, that takes root, but the bone tissue, which forms chemical bonds between itself and the oxide layer of the implant. So it is more correct to say that the body fuses with the surface of the titanium implant. The process of osseointegration lasts 3 months for the lower jaw, 6 months for the upper jaw, and 9 months in the case where bone-plastic surgery was previously performed.

How to understand that the implants have not taken root?

The probability of implant disintegration in our clinic is minimal and is about 0.8%. This can happen in complex cases when other procedures were performed before implantation and the inflammation has not yet healed, but the patient cannot wait. Usually, such implants take root, but there are exceptions.

If the implant is installed incorrectly or there is inflammation, fibrointegration occurs instead of osseointegration. That is, it is not bone tissue that grows, as it should be, but fibrous tissue that is not able to support the implant under load. To check this, we take an X-ray before prosthetics, and if we see a shadow around the implant on the picture, this indicates that there is no bone there. Next, we have to try to move the implant: in most cases, a gum former is screwed to it, through a hole in which we can insert a probe and try to do it. If the implant is immobile, everything is in order and you can proceed to prosthetics. But if it moves in the bed, it means that fibrointegration has taken place and this implant cannot withstand the load. Then we have to remove it: unscrew it from the bed under local anesthesia, if it causes unpleasant sensations, or even without anesthesia. After that, the fibrous tissue is cleaned to the bone cavity, and with the help of a drill of a larger diameter, the bed for the implant is expanded. And then already the probability of engraftment of a larger implant will be 100%. If the implant that was removed was already large, it is necessary to wait until the bone tissue is restored and repeat the implantation.

Who cannot get dental implants?

It is not possible to place implants in patients with HIV in the acute phase, cancer patients and other patients with a sharp decrease in immunity, because in these conditions the body is not capable of recovery. During cancer chemotherapy, a person can take drugs that completely suppress the regeneration of the body and even lead to necrosis of the jaw – in this case, there is no question of any implantation.

As for pregnant women, implantation is prohibited from 1 to 5 months and from 7 to 9, but it is possible from 5 to 7. Smoking and diabetes are not contraindications for implant placement.

Is it possible to put implants in periodontitis?

You can. The periodontium is the tissue that surrounds the tooth, so if there is no tooth, there is no periodontitis. If only part of the teeth are removed due to periodontitis, and some still remain, then periodontitis is the focus of inflammation. That is why patients with periodontitis undergo professional hygiene and caries filling before implantation in order to clean up the sources of infection in the oral cavity and prevent infection of the wound area.

Is it possible to do an MRI of the head if there are dental implants?

Yes, but you need to warn the radiologist that they are there. This affects the initial settings of the equipment. As a rule, questions about implants are included in the questionnaire that the patient fills out before the MRI. The radiologist enters relevant data into the equipment he works on and conducts research.

How to remove dental implants?

It is extremely difficult to remove an osseointegrated dental implant, but such situations do occur: for example, the position of the implant is such that prosthetics is impossible, or an injury occurred, as a result of which part of the implant broke off, or over time the position of the teeth in the mouth has changed so much that it is necessary to replace the implants as well .

To remove implants, there are special cylindrical cutters that allow you to saw the implant inside the bone block. Burs come in different diameters to prevent too much dissection of bone tissue. Removing implants is not easy, but it is not a problem for us.

How does an implant differ from a crown?

The tooth consists of three parts: root, neck and crown. An implant is an artificial root, and a crown is an artificial crown replacement. The crown is placed on the implant after osseointegration is completed, thus the missing tooth is completely replaced.

An important advantage of dental implantation is that it is a tooth-preserving technology, because only a prosthesis is installed in place of the missing tooth, and those nearby do not require any additional intervention.

What to do if there is no money for prosthetic teeth?

The absence of a large number of teeth leads to a number of problems: the bite decreases, the muscles of the lower part of the face atrophy, lips and cheeks sink. Therefore, it is necessary to make at least a removable prosthesis. Yes, it does not completely compensate for the chewing function, but at least it is able to support the height of the bite and keep the surrounding tissues in a stable state despite the absence of teeth before the possibility of prosthetics appears.

How many implants can be placed at the same time?

In general, you can install as many implants as you need, but the initial minimum number, which is the basis for full prosthetics, is 6 implants for the lower jaw and 8 for the upper jaw. If bone plastic is necessary (splitting of the alveolar ridge, repositioning of the nerve bundle, sinus lift), all these manipulations and implantation take place during one surgical intervention.

Which dental implants are considered the best?

There are two types of dental implants: subperiosteal and intraosseous. Intraosseous implants are installed directly in the jawbone, they are the most widespread and durable (under the right conditions of implantation and use, they serve a person for a lifetime), and subperiosteal implants are used extremely rarely, mostly as a temporary option. Intraosseous, in turn, can be lamellar and cylindrical.

Currently, implants with an active thread are quite popular, which are also manufactured by Nobel. When installing them, you can change the direction of screwing in the process and achieve greater stability, but an experienced specialist is able to do the same with an ordinary gentle thread, because he has enough intuition and tactile sensitivity.

The best implants for each doctor are those with which he is most comfortable working. For some, these are Israeli implants, but we prefer the classics from Nobel – our most popular implants in the premium class.

We also work with B&B Dental implants, which are made in Italy, and with more budget-friendly INNO made in South Korea. This does not mean that some implants are better than others – any choice you make will be successful.