When a person is born they are gifted with two sets of teeth; the first begin to appear in infancy, these teeth are soon lost and at about eight years of age they are replaced with the teeth that the individual will have to live with for the rest of his or her life. For many people this is exactly what happens, they go through life keeping all their permanent teeth, for others this is not the case.
There are many reasons that a permanent tooth is lost; perhaps irreversible decay is at fault, perhaps the tooth is lost to trauma but regardless of how it happened, people do lose their teeth. It is not that there are not solutions as there are; people can be fitted for full or partial dentures or they can be fitted with a bridge. These solutions provide teeth but they are far from being the ideal solution. In the case of a bridge perfectly good teeth either side of the tooth loss area have to be damaged to fit the prosthesis and in the case of dentures the wearer is faced with difficulties that include speech and eating.
Now comes a new solution; dental implants in Jacksonville Beach are for all intents and purposes a third set of teeth. The implantation process may take some time but once it is completed the patient has a fully functional tooth, permanently set in the jaw bone which looks feels and acts like the natural tooth it replaces.
When a tooth is removed or lost the dentist can now replace the root with a titanium insert which is implanted directly into the jaw bone. This insert which looks every bit like a small tapered screw is put into the site which has been prepared for it by the dentist. Over five or six months this “root” will become one with the bone, it will be permanently bonded. It is on this titanium implant that the replacement tooth rests.
Dental implants in Beach area consist of three separate components; the titanium implant itself, a small cap called an abutment which is fastened to the top of the implant and the porcelain crown which is attached to the abutment.
Rarely does one hear of a tooth implant that is not successful. As the implant takes the place of the natural tooth root there is minimal shrinkage of the gum, this eliminates the sunken cheek appearance that can be quite noticeable when one wears dentures.
