What should you ask during your dental implant consultation?
Bridgeways Dental is a modern and fully digital private dental practice in Southampton at the forefront of dentistry with a well-established dental implant clinic. In addition to simple and every-day dental implant cases, such as the replacement of a single missing tooth, our implant dentists can provide treatment for advanced cases such as a patient who already has dental implants that are unfortunately failing. We can provide treatment to patients that have been told that they are not able to have dental implants at all, and must instead have another option such as a denture. As such we do get a good number of people contacting us for dental implant consultations.
In this blog, we have collected some of the more common questions people have for us at their initial consultation, which we thought we should share with you to make your consultation with your dental implant dentist more productive and helpful.
You may find it useful to ask the following questions:
1 – What are the available solutions for my missing tooth?
This of course, requires that you understand your own circumstances.
Once you are informed about the options available to you (which typically include a removable denture, a fixed bridge, or a dental implant), you can set some further criteria. For example, you may want a replacement for a single missing tooth that looks and feels as close to your natural tooth as possible. In nearly all cases, the recommended option will be a dental implant.
If you have several decayed, broken, infected, or failing teeth, you may wish to avoid a denture that moves around when you eat or talk and must be removed to clean and at night. Instead, you may prefer a fixed set of teeth and want this done in a predictable way that does not require you to be without teeth for any period. The solution for such a case would be a set of teeth fixed onto several implants, commonly referred to as “all-on-four,” “teeth-in-a-day,” or “smile-in-a-day,” among others.
Here at Bridgeways Dental, we devote a lot of time to help you understand your problem and how you are looking to solve it. This is of paramount importance to us.
2 – What does the procedure involve?
Here you may want to be a bit more careful, as some dentists do indeed love talking about their job and how they can do this and that. You may not want to hear all the ‘bloody’ details, and instead may want to know just the necessary basics. Be specific with this question and you will probably understand a bit better what to expect and how your will experience it.
At Bridgeways Dental, we always explain the implant procedures in a way that non-dentists can understand, both verbally and in writing, without going into gory details—unless, of course, you ask for them.
3 – What type of dental implants do you recommend?
Most people who have done some research request to know about the materials used in the dental implants and how the implant is fitted. For example, titanium or ceramic implants, immediate or delayed placement, zygomatic or subperiosteal implants, etc.
Bridgeways Dental offers a very wide variety of dental implants, all from reputable manufacturers with procedures that increase the predictability and longevity of the treatment outcome. We are also able to place both immediate and delayed implants (depending on the individual circumstance) and we are renowned for the more complex cases where zygomatic implants are needed.
4 – What are the potential risks and complications for my case?
This is an important question to ask.
As with any medical intervention, dental implantology comes with some risks and complications. From simple post-surgical complications like soreness, increased bleeding, and infection, to more serious but less likely damage to other structures in the jawbone, it is important to discuss all the possible complications for your specific case with your dentist before proceeding with your treatment.
Although there will always be some risks, everyday dental implantology is a very safe and predictable treatment modality when executed by well-trained and experienced dental practitioners.
5 – How long do implants last and do they ever fail?
Another important question for your dentist and one which you must take heed of the answer.
Everything fails sooner or later; we can only hope that it will be the latter. Dental implants can have failures, like a fractured screw or a chipped part of the false tooth on top, or even the implant itself may fracture. You will be pleased to know these are rare events, and of course, there are solutions, some simple and some more complex. The main problem we often see with failing implants is the gums around them, which if not kept healthy, will eventually recede along with the accompanying problems (from cosmetic issues to the complete loss of the implant).
We have been performing dental implantology for several decades here at Bridgeways Dental and now have a particular interest in the treatment of failing implants or failing gums around implants and therefore are well-positioned to offer contemporary solutions.
6 – What kind of follow up is required?
Unfortunately, many people believe that because most dental implants are made from titanium, they are very strong and require very little, if any, maintenance. This is far from true, as we considered in the previous question.
Here at our dental implant clinic in Southampton, we always advise seeing the hygienist three or four times in the first 12 months following the completion of your implant treatment, and sometimes even after. This is crucial to achieve and maintain good oral health and specifically gum health, especially during the first few months of gum maturation around the implant. We also advise that your implants are checked yearly to ensure that everything is in order, like the stability of the bite, the soft tissues around it, and that all components are sound.
If you are experiencing any issues with broken, damaged or missing teeth, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us by simply calling 023 8086 8833 or send us a message via our contact page.
