Single Tooth Implant
Winston Salem, NC
Due to decay or other damage, your tooth may need to be extracted. This would leave a gap in the gums since teeth do not grow back. Of course, many of our patients feel self-conscious about tooth gaps. Not only that, but this would limit how well your teeth could function. Missing a tooth would cause changes in your speech and may give you difficulty when eating. At Gibson & Bartholomew Restorative and Esthetic Dentistry, we offer various dental restoration techniques, with dental implants being the preferred option.
Benefits of Single Tooth Implants
When we extract a tooth, we have a few different options for restoration, such as a bridge or crown. That said, we can also provide a single tooth implant, which is preferred by many patients and dental professionals. Dental implants are a bit more invasive, but they prevent us from needing to do work on the adjacent teeth. For instance, with bridges, we must remove some of the enamel on the adjoining teeth because the bridge must be cemented to the teeth alongside it.
On the other hand, with single tooth implants, dental restoration is a free-standing structure. So, your other teeth will not need to be affected. This looks more natural and provides better functioning. In addition, it is also easier to clean, so your risk of future dental conditions will be reduced.
 Procedure
Before your implant procedure, we need to examine your mouth, collect images of underlying structures, and extract the tooth. Examination and imaging of oral structures lets us determine your mouth’s ability to support a dental implant. There are two types of implants that we can use. Endosteal implants are preferable because they are sturdier. That said, endosteal implants are inserted into the jawbone, so your bone must be strong enough to support them.
If your jaw cannot support the implant, we can provide a subperiosteal implant instead. These are only inserted into the gum line, not the jaw. However, they are not as sturdy. We do have procedures available to strengthen your jaw or increase the amount of bone available. For example, a sinus augmentation can be used to lift the sinus floor and develop additional bone in the upper jaw. Ridge modification is another procedure that can be used which involves filling bone defects with donor or synthetic bone to strengthen the structure.
Once all of the preparation is complete, we will schedule you for your single tooth implant surgery. We will make a small incision in the gums and bone in order to place the implant. Once the implant is placed, we will close the wound and allow it time to heal. During this healing, the bone and implant will fuse together. You will receive a temporary restoration to protect the gums in the meantime. We will also get a dental impression so that our lab can customize a permanent crown for you.
Healing can take up to six months. Once you are completely healed, we can remove the temporary crown and affix the permanent restoration to the implant. We use dental cement to attach the restoration to the implant. This cement hardens instantly under a specific type of light. Read our dental implant FAQ's then contact Gibson & Bartholomew Restorative and Esthetic Dentistry at (336) 283-2593 for more information on single-tooth implants.
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