One Day Dental Implants
Dental implants are tooth replacement solutions that are highly sought after for their strength, durability, and attractive appearance. Capable of replacing anywhere from one to every single tooth in one’s mouth, dental implants come in a variety of forms, from removable single prosthetic crowns to fixed implant-supported bridges. While traditional dental implants involve a long and complicated installation process, lasting anywhere from six to eight months, one day dental implants offer immediate solutions that can last a lifetime.
The benefits of one day dental implants are many, including fewer surgeries, less trauma to the soft tissue of the gums, less time spent at the dentist’s office and, most importantly to many patients, not a single day spent with an unsightly gap in their smile.
How do One Day Dental Implants Work?
In contrast to traditional dental implants, which is comprised of a three-stage process that takes six months to a year to replace teeth, one day dental implants are done in a single day. While the preparation takes months to plan effectively for such a large undertaking, many patients are delighted to be able to walk out of the office with a prosthetic tooth or teeth already in place, instead of living their lives with teeth missing for months.
In a one day dental implant procedure, the implant fixture (a small post made of titanium that mimics the function of dental roots) is implanted into the jawbone the same day that the tooth is extracted from that site. In the case of a single dental implant, an abutment (connecting piece) is then immediately placed upon which an implant crown can be attached. To replace more teeth, this can also take place on a larger scale, installing more implant fixtures as needed and preparing the site for either an implant, bridge, or implant-supported denture.
Types of One Day Dental Implants
Nearly every type of dental implant can be done in a day if the patient is a good candidate for the procedure. Some of the considerations that your dentist or oral surgeon will discuss with you when considering one day dental implants include your overall health, the health and structure of your jawbone, and any underlying conditions that might complicate the process of osseointegration, whereby the implant fuses with the hard tissues of the jawbone. Some underlying conditions that can slow down this healing process include diabetes, osteoporosis, and Paget’s disease. Smoking is also a negative contributing factor.
If your dentist or oral surgeon is satisfied with your overall health and that of your jaw, she or he will discuss the options that you have regarding the specific kind of replacement you would like to do. This might entail replacing one or a few missing teeth with single one day dental implants, or two or three teeth in a row, which would then require either a pier abutment or a cantilever bridge.
For larger numbers of missing teeth, there are also good one day implant replacement options. These include traditional implant-supported bridges, which can support three or four missing teeth with the support of two implants that also hold up prosthetic crowns in between them, and the classic all on 4 implants, in which four implant fixtures (or up to six, which more dentists increasingly choose for better stability) hold up an entire arch of implant-supported dentures. Depending on preferences, these can be made to be fixed or removable, and there are also a number of choices to be made regarding materials that you should discuss carefully with your dentist.