Dental Implants – Edmond, OK

Initial Dental Implant Consultation

Dental implant treatment is known for its high success rate, but there are preliminary steps that factor into maintaining such a level of excellence. One of them is the initial examination, at which time we’ll evaluate your oral health – after all, the condition of your gums and surrounding teeth will impact the longevity of your dental implants in Piedmont. Therefore, if there are any signs of gum disease or other issues, we’ll discuss the treatment options with you.

We’ll also measure your existing jawbone density, as it’s key to a dental implant seating properly. If you have an insufficient amount, one possibility is for you to undergo a bone grafting procedure. It involves the removal of bone material from another part of your body (usually the hip or chin) and adding to the jaw to build up the bone bed. Once you’ve sufficiently healed, we can then schedule the dental implant surgery.

Dental Implant Surgery

As a skilled implant dentist in Edmond, Dr. Crowley can handle the surgical implant placement himself. Not only does this make the overall process more convenient, but you’ll be working with the same team you already know and trust.

Once you’re fully comfortable with the help of anesthetic and/or sedation, Dr. Crowley will make incisions in your gum tissue to access your jawbone. He’ll then insert the implant posts at predetermined locations and angles before suturing your gums closed and letting the healing process begin.

Dental Implant Osseointegration/Abutment

After dental implant placement, the next step is for your gums to heal and for the biocompatible titanium to fuse with your jawbone, which is called osseointegration. This can sometimes take up to nine months to complete, but it’s well worth the wait, as you’ll gain a lifetime of confident smiles, enjoyable meals, and better oral and overall health.

Once we determine that you’ve healed well enough and the fusion process has successfully completed, we’ll place a titanium abutment, which is carefully screwed into the implant to allow the final restoration (a personalized dental crown, bridge, or denture) to securely attach to it. 

Delivery of Dental Implant Restorations

Your restoration, constructed from the highest grade of dental ceramics, will match the color, texture, and strength of your natural teeth. With these components in place, you’ll have a smile that is just as attractive and functional as your original ivories.

The timeframe for the dental implant process will ultimately depend on your individual needs. However, with many dental implants in Edmond lasting 30 years or more, displaying a little bit of patience and following the care tips that we’ll provide will reward you mightily!

Day-to-Day Benefits

• Easy Maintenance & Care. You won’t need to worry about adding a lengthy cleaning process to your daily routine. Unlike other dental prosthetics, you won’t need any special cleaning solutions, just brush and floss your teeth normally! Pay extra attention when cleaning around the dental implant and the abutment. Besides caring for your smile at home, don’t forget to visit your dentist at least twice a year for a cleaning and checkup.
• Smile More Confidently. Dental implants are able to restore the entire structure of missing teeth, including the roots. This means you can smile with confidence without having to worry about your restorations slipping or being noticeable among your natural teeth.
• Speak More Easily. With traditional dentures, patients often have to go through an adjustment period where they need to re-learn how to talk with their restorations in. With dental implants, you can speak with confidence because your replacement teeth are firmly secured within your mouth.

Health Benefits

• Promotes Jawbone Growth. Traditional dental prosthetics only replace the portion of your tooth visible above the gum line. A dental implant takes it one step further because it also treats the root. A titanium implant post is surgically placed into your jawbone to act as a new root and stimulates your jaw to promote new bone growth.
• Maintain a Balanced Diet. Your jawbone provides a stable foundation for your restoration, allowing you to enjoy your favorite foods and a well-balanced diet. With your post secured to your jawbone, you’ll regain as much as 80% of your natural biting force and never need to worry about any slipping or irritation to bite and chew confidently.
• Better Overall Health. Did you know that the health of your smile is directly connected to your physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing? With a healthy smile that you feel confident in, you’ll be able to enjoy improved overall wellness.

Long-Term Benefits

• High Success Rate. Dental implants are the most predictable and reliable solution to treat tooth loss and boast an impressive 95% success rate. The biggest threat to their longevity is a preventable infection called peri-implantitis. You can reduce your risk of it by maintaining your home oral hygiene habits and visiting your dentist regularly. If you develop any signs of dental implant failure, don’t wait to see your dentist.
• Long Lifespan. With your jawbone supporting the dental implant, your new smile has the potential to last forever with the right care. This allows you to make a long-term investment in your oral health because it will never need to be replaced. Not to mention, you’ll also lower your overall oral health expenses and have fewer visits with your implant dentist in OKC because dental implants preserve your jawbone. This stops dental drift to reduce your risk of cavities, gum disease, and additional tooth loss to prevent needing a costly treatment down the road.

Who Is a Good Candidate for Dental Implants?

Despite the complexity of the treatment, dental implants can help the vast majority of healthy adults who are suffering from tooth loss. Some patients qualify immediately, while others must complete one or more preparatory treatments beforehand. Typically, a good dental implant candidate should meet the following criteria:

• Great oral health – Untreated gum disease increases the risk of dental implant failure, so we’ll need to address it prior to implant placement.
• Good overall health – Ideally, you should have no medical conditions that hinder your ability to undergo or recover from minor oral surgery.
• Strong jawbone – It’s common to lose jawbone density after teeth go missing. If your jawbone has deteriorated, it can’t support dental implants. You may need a bone graft to create a strong foundation for your new teeth.
• Healthy oral habits – Dental implants tend to last longer in patients who maintain excellent oral hygiene, keep up with routine dental checkups, and avoid tobacco products.

Once Dr. Crowley has determined that you can move forward with dental implant treatment, he can begin planning out the details based on the number of teeth you’re interested in replacing. 

Missing One Tooth

If you’re missing a single tooth, then Dr. Crowley can vertically position a dental implant post into the empty space and then attach a dental crown on top. Since the crown will be custom-made from realistic materials, the people around you shouldn’t be able to tell your implant apart from your natural pearly whites. A dental implant is a far superior way to replace a missing tooth than a dental bridge, which requires that some enamel be filed away from the two adjacent teeth. The implant can support itself without the need to sacrifice any healthy tooth structure.

Missing Multiple Teeth

To replace several missing teeth in a row, we don’t actually need to place an implant for each individual tooth. Instead, we can position one implant at each end of the gap and have them support a bridge that seamlessly completes your grin. Unlike a traditional bridge, an implant bridge doesn’t rely on your remaining teeth, making it a healthier and more conservative treatment.

Alternatively, if your multiple missing teeth are not consecutive, we might be able to anchor a partial denture onto a few expertly positioned implants. This way, we can bring back several teeth along the arch using as few implants as possible.

Missing All Teeth

If you’ve lost all of your teeth, you’re probably thinking that traditional dentures are the only way to get your complete smile back. The good news is that there’s another option that provides more durability, reliability, and longevity – implant dentures. With this solution, a full denture can be secured onto a small number of implant posts (usually between four and eight) that are strategically placed in the densest parts of the jawbone. As a result, your implant denture won’t slip out of place, and it can potentially last a lifetime. Implant dentures can be either removable or fixed in place, and during your consultation, your dental implant dentist in Edmond can help you decide the option that’s best for you.

Learn More About Implant Dentures

Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery

Any preliminary treatments that you require before you can get dental implants, including gum disease therapy, tooth extractions, and bone grafting, will contribute to the overall cost. For many patients, these treatments are necessary in order to ensure that the dental implants are successful. Preliminary treatments can sometimes be covered by dental insurance, so this is something that you should check with your insurance provider. Since we conveniently provide the entire treatment under one roof, you don’t need to worry about working with an outside surgeon and needing to pay for the implant placement separately.

The Parts of Your Dental Implant

Smiles are kind of like snowflakes. No two are the same, and thus no two oral procedures or surgeries will be exactly identical, either. Your dental implant treatment may vary quite a bit from what you have heard from friends or family members.

Some of the most significant factors influencing the cost of dental implants include:

• How many implant posts are required: Because dental implants are individually priced, the extent of your tooth loss is the biggest driver influencing the cost of the overall procedure.
• Where in the jaw the implants will be placed: The location of your dental implants will also significantly determine how much they cost. Replacing front teeth requires a more complex procedure, as aesthetics are of significant concern.
• What the implants are made of: Most implant posts are made from titanium, a biocompatible material that promotes the growth of bone tissue for a sturdy foundation. However, patients with metal allergies or sensitivities may wish for an alternative option, like ceramic or zirconia. These special materials cost more than titanium.
• Other concerns: Should you need special accommodations for anesthesia or sedation, your implant dentist will discuss which will suit you best. The cost of the overall procedure may increase as well.

How Dental Implants Can Save You Money

It can be tempting for patients to try to save money by opting for dentures or bridges, but dental implants have benefits that you can’t get from other tooth replacement options. They can even help you to save money in the long run. You won’t need to worry about paying for replacements every 5 to 7 years like you would with dentures, and there’s no need to stock up on adhesives or soaking solutions either. They can also help you to avoid oral health issues, like gum disease, misalignment issues, and tooth decay, that will require costly treatments over time.

Does My Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?

Often times, dental insurance plans don’t cover the cost of dental implants, but there are a few exceptions. Parts of the final or preliminary treatments are often covered. One of our friendly team members would be happy to go over your benefits with you so you know exactly what is and isn’t covered before your treatment begins. We’ll do everything we can to help you maximize your coverage.

Making Dental Implants Affordable

If you don’t have dental insurance, you aren’t necessarily left completely on your own. We have an in-house membership plan that can help patients to save when it comes to dental care. We also work with CareCredit – a third-party financing company that can break the cost of treatment into manageable monthly installments with little to no interest. Talk to our team to learn more about your options!

3D Cone Beam Imaging

Digital X-rays are designed to give us a clear picture of your mouth and the current condition of your bone tissue. However, X-rays are only two-dimensional, making them limited in applications where dental implants need to be placed. This is where 3D cone beam scanning comes in. Our Orthophos SL 3D tool from Sirona enables us to capture a fully 3D image of your mouth, allowing us to view detailed portions of your mouth and jaw from all angles.

For example, 3D X-rays highlight important oral structures, including nerve pathways, soft tissues, and craniofacial bones. Our team works diligently to avoid these sensitive areas during the actual placement of the implant(s). As a result, you can expect:

• Improved precision and predictability: It will be substantially easier for our team to recognize potential obstacles and avoid them before surgery occurs.
• High success rates: Better precision also means the success rate of your implant will be higher. This is because we’re able to maximize all available bone tissue for better integration.
• Better safety and comfort,: All scans only take a few minutes to complete and are 100% painless.

E4D Digital Impression System

If you’ve ever had to have restorations created before, you may already know about the process of biting down into gray impression material just to have it made. By using our digital impression system from CEREC, you can skip that step entirely. Instead of creating a physical mold using putty material, we’ve made the process fully digital!

The procedure is relatively simple: we carefully guide a small, handheld oral scanner around the inside of your mouth. This device captures hundreds of images of your oral structures, then sends them to our computer. These images are recompiled to create a 3D image that acts as the impression. From there, we can make adjustments as needed to design a restoration (whether that be a crown, bridge or denture) that fits on top of your dental implants!

Bone Grafting

Bone loss is one of the most common obstacles for dental implant surgery. The jawbone relies on stimulation from the teeth to stay healthy and strong. If any teeth are lost, your jawbone will start to deteriorate, and as a result, it might not be capable of supporting implants at first. As such, when we’re examining your mouth during your initial consultation, we’ll need to consider whether or not a bone graft will be necessary before implant placement.

During the bone grafting procedure, your gums are opened so that we can access the parts of the jaw where bone loss has taken place. Then, we’ll apply bone grafting tissue to any areas that need repair; this tissue is typically taken from elsewhere in your body, but it can also come from a donor depending on your needs.

Once the grafting material is in place, it will gradually fuse with the rest of the jaw. It can take several months for your mouth to fully recover after grafting, but once it does, your jaw will be ready for dental implant posts.

Ridge Expansion

Bone loss in your jaw can happen in two different dimensions. Sometimes it occurs vertically, causing your jaw to lose bone height. But in other cases, it can happen horizontally, making the ridge of the jaw too narrow for implants to be placed. In the case of horizontal bone loss, we can reverse the damage with a specialized procedure called ridge expansion.

During this procedure, we will open your gums and divide the ridge bone into inner and other segments. After carefully wedging these segments apart, we will fill the space between them with bone grafting material. Like with a regular bone graft, we can either use your own tissue or tissue taken from a separate donor. Once the material is in place, we will suture the gums shut, then give you instructions for taking care of your mouth at home so that your recovery goes smoothly.

The exact amount of time your jaw will need to heal after ridge expansion depends on several factors, including your body’s recovery capabilities. That said, you can usually expect the healing process to take around six months. Implant surgery can be performed once we’ve confirmed that your jaw is now wide enough to safely support the implant posts.  

What to Do Directly After Dental Implant Surgery

After your dental implant placement is complete, you will need to adhere to the instructions provided to you for optimal recovery. To ensure the blood clot that is forming in your surgical sites remains untouched, you must follow these rules:

• Do not use straws while consuming beverages.
• Do not smoke or use tobacco products for at least the first day. Although, it is best to avoid this altogether throughout your recovery.
• Do not spit, as this can dislodge the blood clot. Instead, use tissues or swallow your saliva.
• Do not touch or prod your surgical sites with your fingers or tongue.

Common Side-Effects

It is common to experience some mild side effects after your surgery. The first few days are when you will see most of the following occur, effectively dissipating and subsiding over time. However, should you notice these side effects lasting longer than necessary, make sure to contact your implant dentist in Edmond.

The side-effects you can expect to experience include:

• Multiple days of intermittent bleeding. You can minimize the flow by using clean gauze and gently applying pressure by biting down.
• Some swelling will be prominent in the first 3 days; however, it can last more than one week. You can reduce the swelling by using cold and warm compresses.
• General discomfort, which can be minimized by taking an over-the-counter pain reliever.

Diet

Although you may be tempted to drive through your favorite fast-food place for a juicy burger and fries, it’s best if you eat softer foods in the first few days after your procedure, some of which can include:

• Pasta
• Yogurt
• Ice cream
• Pudding
• Warm soup
• Scrambled eggs
• Mashed potatoes

Once the side effects of your surgery begin to dissipate and you feel more ready, you can return to your normal diet. It is recommended, however, that you avoid as many hard, crunchy foods as possible and keep from applying too much pressure when chewing to your implant sites.

Health & Oral Hygiene

Although you will be healing at home in these few months after your dental implant surgery, you will need to stay on top of your dental hygiene routine to maintain good oral health. To do this, make sure you are:

• Brushing your teeth the day after your surgery. You will need to be mindful when brushing around your surgical sites.
• Rinsing your mouth with mild salt water at least 2-3 times each day. This is best done after eating your meals, and if you have a prescription mouth rinse, make sure to use it.
• Not using mouthwashes that are high in alcohol (i.e., Scope, Listerine)

What to Do After Your New Teeth Are Attached

You’ll be pleased to know that once you reach the stage of receiving your customized restoration, you can breathe easy! The hard part is already over. When having your new crown, bridge, or denture put into place, you may experience some minor sensitivity in your gums (which should only be temporary), but you can easily control any discomfort with oral pain medication. With no swelling or bleeding to worry about, you can begin to enjoy your new dental implants in Piedmont the very same day!

How Long Do Dental Implants Last?

Dental implants have over a 95% 10-year success rate. With the right aftercare, like maintaining your oral hygiene and regular care from your dentist, they have the potential to last for a lifetime. You will need to have the crown replaced about every 10 years because it will experience wear and tear.

Can You Be Too Old for Dental Implants?

You are never too old for dental implants; however, your candidacy depends on your oral and general health, as well as your jawbone’s density.

How Long Does the Dental Implant Process Take?

Completing your smile with dental implants will take some time. After the implant placement, your jawbone will need time to heal to fuse to it, which typically takes three to six months. After adequate healing has occurred, the abutment and dental crown will be attached.

Will Smoking Cause Dental Implant Failure?

Smoking or tobacco use in any form increases your risk for implant failure because it lowers your body’s ability to heal and fight infection. With infection as the biggest threat for implant failure in Edmond, it is best to avoid tobacco.

How Do I Take Care of Dental Implants?

Caring for your new smile is similar to caring for your natural teeth. Brush twice a day and floss each night while paying careful attention to clean around the implant posts. In addition, do not forget to see your dentist twice a year for a cleaning and checkup.

Make Oral Hygiene a Priority

Dental implants can’t get cavities like normal teeth can, but you still need to practice excellent oral hygiene. In addition to keeping your surrounding teeth in good shape, sticking to an excellent oral hygiene routine can prevent other dental problems, like gum disease, that can cause your implants to fail. Remember to brush, floss, and rinse with mouthwash every day.

Eat a Healthy Diet

One of the many benefits of getting dental implants is the fact that you don’t need to worry about eating restrictions. You can easily enjoy nutritious meals without struggling to chew. Just remember to brush, floss, and rinse with mouthwash every day.

Break Bad Habits

Refrain from smoking or using other tobacco products immediately after your dental implant placement. This can slow down healing and increase your risk of developing an infection. Don’t use your teeth as tools either. You could end up accidentally damaging your dental implants or surrounding teeth. Instead, try to find some scissors, pliers, a bottle opener, or another tool that can help you to complete your task safely.

Protect Your Dental Implants

Your dental implants may be strong, but they aren’t completely indestructible. You should always wear a mouthguard to protect your dental implants and natural teeth when participating in sports. If you grind your teeth at night, ask about a nightguard to protect your implants from additional wear and tear.

Schedule Regular Dental Checkups

You should always attend regular cleanings and checkups twice a year. This way, we can monitor your dental implants and spot any issues as easily as possible. By catching potential problems now, you can keep them from becoming more serious and leading to greater complications.