In Basingstoke, dental implants are enhancing the lives of people who no longer wish to go through the hassle and potential self-consciousness that can come with removable false teeth.

Many people now prefer to have dental implants fitted, seeing them as a leap forward in technology that offers better lifestyle benefits than their old removable dentures and bridges. The main reasons for this view of implants as more convenient is because they are permanently inserted into the jawbone.

Here at Glenholme Dental, our dentists in Basingstoke, dental implants replace missing teeth with something that functions just like them. This helps avoid various oral health problems that can arise from having missing teeth.

This is because by replacing the root as well as the tooth, dental implants in Basingstoke fill the gap in the jawbone between the remaining natural teeth. The replacement root stops the roots next to it from tipping over sideways, which prevents other knock-on oral health problems.

Dental implants are tiny posts made from titanium that the dentist screws into the jaw to replace the root of the missing tooth. In Basingstoke, dental implants are inserted during a surgical procedure. Implants require dense and healthy gums to bed into.

Once the dental implants are in place, you need to wait for several weeks while the jaws and gums heal. During this time, which can be as much as several months, the bone grows and meshes around the implants, making them a permanent fixture. The implant also stimulates blood vessels to grow and thereby supply the gum with oxygen and nutrients, thus preventing it from receding. All this work quietly going on thanks to the implant means that in the long-term, the patient avoids developing the sunken look that missing teeth bring.

Once the healing period is completed and the dental implants have become part of the jaw, the dentist can fit an artificial tooth, teeth or even a permanent bridge onto the dental implants.

These artificial teeth will have been custom-made and colour-matched to the patient’s own natural teeth.

Once they are in place, most people can expect their implants will last a lifetime. The success rate for implants these day is around 98%, whereas dentures and removable bridges need replacing about every five years.