Dental Implants

Are you missing a tooth? Then you could be a candidate for a dental implant. This is the best way to replace a missing tooth, provided you have enough bone at the site of the missing tooth to support an implant. And Dr. Chal is a world-renowned expert in this treatment.

A dental implant takes the place of a missing tooth root, and it is placed or implanted in the bone, and a crown, which is the tooth replacement, is placed over it. Titanium is used because it is the most biocompatible metal we know of - it does not irritate living tissue. And, after the appropriate healing time, it bonds with the bone. After the bone has grown around the implant, it can hold a crown (one tooth), bridge (a short row of teeth), an overdenture (replacing all your teeth), or a hybrid restoration (also replacing all your teeth), just like roots hold natural teeth in place.

Benefits of Implants Instead of Removable Dentures

• Better Appearance: When a tooth is lost, the body senses it and begins to redistribute the bone that used to support that tooth. With the loss of all your teeth, your entire jawbones, upper and lower, begin to shrink, causing what we call facial collapse. Dental implants prevent this from happening. Or, facial collapse can even be restored. (See our page on bone grafting for more information about this.)
• Greater Comfort: Since dental implants are firmly anchored in the jaw, they look and feel like your own teeth. Removable dentures often slip around in the mouth, and can rub, causing sore spots. In cases of facial collapse, some patients can find it impossible to wear a conventional denture.
• Improved speech: Even well-fitting dentures move around in the mouth, and cheek and tongue muscles need to be trained to keep them in place. People who wear dentures sometimes find it a challenge to speak distinctly and without clicking noises.
• Better eating: Even with excellent fitting dentures, eating efficiency is decreased considerably. With poor fitting dentures, normal chewing can become impossible. And everyone who wears dentures, given enough time, will have their jaws shrink to where it becomes impossible to have a stable, comfortable, functional denture. Good nutrition becomes a serious problem when people reach this state.
• Convenience: Complete dentures can come loose at inconvenient or embarrassing times, and may require applications of denture adhesive several times a day to stay in place. With dental implants, your teeth will stay in place without any concern, and you won't have to cover your mouth any more when you laugh or smile, because there won't be any such embarrassing incidents.
• Self-esteem: When your teeth are firmly placed in your mouth and don't come out at night, you will feel better about yourself. You feel more like everyone else, having the ability to eat and talk normally without having to think about it..

Your Dental Implants Investment

You may know that when you decide to get dental implants it's a sizeable investment of thousands of dollars. Weigh the cost against the benefits. If you are missing multiple teeth or all of your teeth, having dental implants will often mean the difference between being able to chew versus keeping your teeth in a drawer when you get older, as happens with so many people. About twenty years ago, Dr. Chal did a full set of dental implants on a woman who was in her 70s. Now, in her 90s, she has had many years of being able to eat normally, while some of her contemporaries have stomach or other health problems as a complication of not being able to chew normal food. While the initial investment was substantial, the difference it has meant for her health and self-esteem over these last twenty years makes the cost actually fairly modest.

Dental Implants Smile Gallery

Click here to see implant cases in the Smile Gallery.