Dental Implants

A Dental Implant is the closest replacement to a natural tooth we have in dentistry today. They have literally changed the lives of so many of our patients because they restore for them what nature had provided. Dental Implants can give you back your smile, help you to chew effectively, speak better, restore the muscle tone in your face, eliminate wrinkles and so much more. This is why our patients travel from places as far as the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Dubai, and all-over South Africa to have Dental Implants done at Silver Oaks Dental Clinic in Durban.

Dental Implants Before & After

What is a Dental Implant?

A Dental Implant is a titanium “screw” which is used to replace the root of a tooth. It is placed in the jawbone and integrates (becomes a part of) with the bone to form a solid unit. This enables the dentist to anchor a crown (single tooth) or a bridge (multiple teeth) or a denture in the mouth where there are no teeth.

So there are effectively two parts to Dental Implant treatment – namely the titanium screw (implant) and secondly the final crown (tooth) which attaches to the implant.

This has proven to be incredibly useful as patients now have the option of having a fixed prosthesis to replace missing or damaged teeth. This means no longer having to be forced to wear dentures to replace missing teeth. You no longer have to remove your teeth to clean and maintain them. It also means that you do not need to have bridges to close any gaps you may have as they severely weaken the anchor teeth which they attach to.

“A Dental Implant when properly done is the closest replacement to your own natural tooth that you can get today”

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Once successfully integrated into the surrounding bone, implants can last a very long time, in fact if properly looked after, Dental Implants can literally last a lifetime.

Dental implants have been around for more than 40 years. They have improved immeasurably in recent years and together with the digital revolution have evolved into an extremely successful and reproducible treatment modality within dentistry. We at Silver Oaks Dental Clinic have been placing dental implants for the last 15 years both in the United Kingdom as well as in South Africa.

The procedure for the placement of dental implants has changed significantly over the last few years. This is because of the advent of Digital Dentistry and the sophistication of the latest 3-D dental scanners and 3-D printers. Highly advanced computers with Artificial Intelligence (AI) have changed how we place our implants.

“We are a fully digital dental practice and use a digital design and fully guided digital placement protocol in all of our implant cases.”

This has a number of advantages for our patients –

Benefits of Digital Implant Dentistry

Accurate Placement
Implant placement is much more accurate than the non-digital approach
Reduced Surgery Time
Surgery time is greatly reduced
Faster Healing Process
Healing is quicker and more effective
Superior Aesthetics
The aesthetics of the final prosthesis (teeth) has improved greatly because of the integration of Digital Smile Design and Digital Implant Placement

Safer Surgery
The surgery is much safer due to the use of Cone Beam CT scans
Immediate Temporary Crown
With accurate digital planning we can often attach an immediate temporary crown to the dental implant so that there is no need to wait for three months for the bone to grow into the implant
Fewer Appointments
The number of appointments are also reduced because of this
More Cost-effective
This makes the overall procedure also more cost-effective

How can implants help you?

There are different options for dental implant restoration. This depends on each individual’s needs, requirements, and budget. The following are the most common uses of dental implants at our practice –

Single Tooth Multiple Teeth Full Arch Implants Denture Retaining

Single Tooth Implants

What are they?

Single tooth implants are generally very simple procedures taking less time than a crown preparation would take. Using digitally guided surgery these implants can often be placed without having to make incisions into the gum. This makes the healing much simpler, quicker, with much less discomfort afterwards. With our on-site lab we are often able to place a temporary crown immediately on the placed implant.

Why would you even bother to have one?

It is always better to replace a missing tooth or restore a broken tooth in the mouth. This is because if you lose a tooth in your jaw the remaining teeth have to work so much harder to support your bite. This puts an enormous amount of pressure on these teeth often causing them to fracture or break which starts the cycle again putting even more pressure on the remaining teeth. Before long you end up with too few teeth to chew with. The other reason is that when there is a space following a tooth extraction or a tooth breakage the teeth on either side of the gap tend to lean into that space. The tooth in the other jaw opposite the gap will also tend to grow into the space created by the lack of tooth. This procedure is called over-eruption and causes huge problems later in life with chewing and jaw movements.

What are your alternatives to having a single tooth implant?

The alternative is to having a single tooth implant would be either a bridge or a denture.

The disadvantage of having a bridge is that the teeth on either side of the bridge would need to be cut down quite a bit to create the space required for the porcelain of the bridge. The prognosis of these bridges is generally around 5 to 10 years and when they fail you stand to lose three teeth. On the other hand dental implants if properly placed and looked after can last for the rest of your life – and if they fail you will only lose a single tooth as opposed to three.

Dentures are the cheaper alternative but have their own disadvantages. They are a removable appliance made of either plastic or chrome cobalt metal. They are not the most comfortable appliance to wear. They affect your chewing because they move in your mouth. They affect your taste as they cover areas in your mouth where the taste buds are often found. Some people find that they make them gag because they cover the roof of your mouth. Other people complain that they affect their speech because of the position of the tongue against the plastic or metal of the denture.

Multiple Teeth Implants

What are they?

Multiple teeth implants are required if more than one tooth is missing. By this we mean 2 to 6 missing teeth. This does not mean however that you would require one implant per tooth. Most of the time we repair gaps of multiple teeth with 2 to 3 implants only. We would then bridge the gap using the implants as anchor teeth. This makes the procedure much more cost-effective and often improves the aesthetics of the outcome. The bridges are made of extremely strong porcelain (Zirconia or Monolithium Disilicate / Emax) and they are fixed permanently onto the implants.

Why would you even bother to have them?

It is always better to replace missing teeth in the mouth. This is because if you lose teeth in your jaw the remaining teeth have to work so much harder to support your bite. This puts an enormous amount of pressure on these teeth often causing them to fracture or break which starts the cycle again putting even more pressure on the remaining teeth. Before long you end up with too few teeth to chew with. The other reason is that when there is a space following a tooth extraction or a tooth breakage the teeth on either side of the gap tend to lean into that space. The tooth in the other jaw opposite the gap will also tend to grow into the space created by the lack of tooth. This procedure is called over-eruption and causes huge problems later in life with chewing and jaw movements.

The other problem is that when teeth are extracted and not replaced the bone starts to recede. This leads to all sorts of issues including problems with muscle tone causing the face to sag which immediately makes you look older. If left too long the receded bone would make it even harder to place implants or even restore with bridges or dentures at a later stage. You would then require extensive bone grafting to rectify the situation before placing the implants.

What are your alternatives to having multiple teeth implants?

The alternatives to having multiple teeth implants would be either a bridge or a denture.

The disadvantage of having a bridge is that the teeth on either side of the bridge would need to be cut down quite a bit to create the space required for the porcelain of the bridge. The prognosis of these bridges is generally around 5 to 10 years but in the case of multiple teeth implants this prognosis would be significantly lower. When they fail you stand to lose multiple teeth. On the other hand dental implants if properly placed and looked after can last for the rest of your life.

Dentures are the cheaper alternative but have their own disadvantages. They are removable appliances made of either plastic or chrome cobalt metal. They are not the most comfortable appliances to wear. They affect your chewing because they move in your mouth. They affect your taste as they cover areas in your mouth where the taste buds are often found. Some people find that they make them gag because they cover the roof of your mouth. Other people complain that they affect their speech because of the position of the tongue against the plastic or metal of the denture.

Full Arch Implants

What are they?

Full arch implants are required when none of the teeth in your jaw can be restored and have to be extracted. Because there are 12-16 teeth in each jaw it is not feasible to place one implant per tooth. We would generally tend to place 4-8 implants per jaw depending on the amount of bone, the type of final prosthesis as well as time and cost considerations. These implants would support a full arch bridge made of either Zirconium, Titanium, or an Acrylic resin. These bridges would carry between 12 to 14 units (teeth).

The procedure is digitally planned, designed and implemented surgically. It is generally done under intravenous sedation (IV) or general anaesthetic (GA). We would always try to attach temporary teeth to the placed implants on the same day (Same Day Smiles). This is made possible through digital planning and the fact that we have an on-site dental laboratory at the practice.

Why would you even bother to have them?

It is always better to replace the missing teeth in your mouth. When teeth are extracted and not replaced the bone starts to recede (dissolve). The teeth can be replaced with dentures but these cause the bone to recede even more over time. Placing dental implants actually helps to maintain the bone height in the jaw so that it does not recede anymore.

This bone recession leads to all sorts of issues including problems with muscle tone causing the face to sag which immediately makes you look older. If left too long the receded bone would make it even harder to place implants or even restore with bridges or dentures at a later stage. You would then require extensive bone grafting to rectify the situation before placing the implants.

Without enough teeth in your mouth you automatically struggle to chew correctly. Overtime this leads to problems with your TMJ (Temporo Mandibular Joint) which is the joint between the jaws. This can cause chronic jaw ache, migraines, tinnitus (ringing in your ears), sleep apnoea (struggling to sleep) amongst other things.

Not being able to chew your food has its own problems including indigestion, malabsorption of vital nutrients for the body, acid reflux to name but a few.

What are your alternatives to having Full Arch Implants?

Another option is to have Denture Retaining Implants. These are removable dentures which are attached to implants. These may not have the ideal aesthetic or functional end result of Full Arch Implants but are a much more cost-effective solution.

Denture Retaining Implants

What are they?

These are dentures which are held in place with implants. They are removable appliances which make them easy to clean outside of the mouth. The dentures can be held in place with 2-4 implants which attach to the fitting surface of the denture. There are many different types of attachments – we generally use the “locator type” ball clip which fits into an “O-ring” in the denture. This “O-ring” is replaced periodically.

Why would you even bother to have them?

Without enough teeth in your mouth you automatically struggle to chew correctly. Overtime this leads to problems with your TMJ (Temporo Mandibular Joint) which is the joint between the jaws. This can cause chronic jaw ache, migraines, tinitis (ringing in your ears), sleep apnoea (struggling to sleep) amongst other things.

Not being able to chew your food has its own problems including indigestion, malabsorption of vital nutrients for the body, acid reflux to name but a few.

This is a cost-effective solution to having no teeth in your mouth. It is not the ideal solution as it is a removable prosthesis. However it does help you to chew your food effectively because it limits the movement of dentures while chewing and talking.

Although only 2-4 implants are used to support the dentures these few implants still help to maintain the height of the bone and to prevent bone recession.

Having teeth in your mouth (even teeth that are on dentures) helps to support your muscle tone and fills your cheeks. This helps to counteract the ageing affect of sagging muscles due to the lack of teeth.

What are your alternatives to having Full Arch Implants?

Careful examination and planning is always be done prior to any implant treatment. Photos, 3D scans of the teeth and CBCT scans of the jaws will be taken before placement. This digital planning allows us to determine what sort of treatment is required and what your options are. Sometimes there is not enough bone in the jaws to place an implant so a bone graft would be required before or at the same time as the implant placement. This is generally a simple procedure where we would use organic (your own bone or cows bone) or inorganic (calcium substitutes) materials.

Common questions about having Dental Implants

How long is the procedure?

A single dental implant often takes less time than the crown preparation – between 20-40 minutes. More complicated cases take longer.

Is it a painful procedure ?

The dentist uses different types of local anaesthetic techniques to completely deaden the area so that there is no feeling during the procedure. For larger cases we use our in-house anaesthetist who administers intravenous drugs to numb the pain, relax you, and telescope the time so it feels much quicker than it is. This is called Intravenous Sedation (IV Sedation).

Do I have to take time off work to have it done?

For simple implant placements the answer would be no as the healing is much quicker using digital surgical techniques. An alternative would be to have the treatment done on a Friday and have the weekend to recover.

For larger surgical cases you may want to take a Friday off to have three days to recover – this is often enough.

Will I have teeth while waiting for the implants to be ready?

We will always make a temporary solution for you. We always try to place temporary teeth immediately onto the implants but if this is not possible we will make you a temporary bridge or denture to use while the implants integrate.

Am I not too old to have dental implants ?

Today age is not necessarily a limiting factor with dental implants as we have placed implants on patients as old as ninety years. As long as you are fit and healthy you are good to go.

What will the end result look like ?

Using Digital Smile Design (DSD) we can very often show you what the end result will look like before we even start.

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Why Should You Get Your Dental Implants Done With Silver Oaks Dental Clinic?

We offer the highest quality in dentistry
All our implants are internationally recognized and used all over the world. So you know you are getting the highest quality in Dental Implants
Life time guarantee
We offer a life time guarantee on our implants
Start to finish Treatment
We perform the treatment from start to finish

Expert skills
Dr Huson trained under world renowned celebrity dentist Dr Joe Oliver in the Harley Street Region of London. He has placed in excess 500 Implants – all with excellent results
Latest digital technology
We offer the latest digital technology – we have an onsite lab using the latest 3D scanning and 3D printing techniques in order to perfect your smile.

The Dental Implant Procedure

How you can prepare for the implant procedure

Because dental implants require one or more surgical procedures, you must have a thorough evaluation to prepare for the process, including a:

Comprehensive dental exam: You will need to have X-Rays or a 3D scan taken.
Treatment plan: Dr Huson will have a look at your teeth and jawbone and will give you a treatment plan based on how many teeth need to be replaced and the condition of your jawbone. A quote will be given to you and explained in detail what it entails.

Dr Huson will ask you about any medical conditions and any medications you take, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs and supplements. If you have certain heart conditions or orthopedic implants, Dr Huson may prescribe antibiotics before surgery to help prevent infection.

To control pain, anesthesia options during surgery include local anesthesia, Intra -Venous sedation or general anesthesia (GA). Talk to Dr Huson about which option is best for you. Your dental care team will instruct you about eating and drinking before surgery, depending on what type of anesthesia you have. If you’re having general anesthesia or IV Sedation, plan to have someone take you home after surgery and expect to rest for the remainder of the day.

What you can expect

Dental implant surgery is usually an outpatient surgery performed in stages:

The damaged tooth is removed (if there is one present – if not the implant can be placed immediately)
The titanium implant is placed in the bone and left to heal. The final crown (tooth) can sometimes be placed at this stage but it would depend on the quality and quantity of your bone at the placement.
Bone takes around 3months to fully integrate into the implant.
Dr Huson then places the abutment — an extension of the implant metal post — followed by your new porcelain tooth (crown).

The entire process can take 3-4 months from start to finish. Much of that time is devoted to healing and waiting for the growth of new bone in your jaw.

Click on the headings below to read more about Dental Implants

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Dental Implants

Dental Implants Before & After

What is a Dental Implant?

“A Dental Implant when properly done is the closest replacement to your own natural tooth that you can get today”

“We are a fully digital dental practice and use a digital design and fully guided digital placement protocol in all of our implant cases.”

This has a number of advantages for our patients –

Benefits of Digital Implant Dentistry

Accurate Placement

Reduced Surgery Time

Faster Healing Process

Superior Aesthetics

Safer Surgery

Immediate Temporary Crown

Fewer Appointments

More Cost-effective

How can implants help you?

Single Tooth Implants

Multiple Teeth Implants

Full Arch Implants

Denture Retaining Implants

Common questions about having Dental Implants

Why Should You Get Your Dental Implants Done With Silver Oaks Dental Clinic?

We offer the highest quality in dentistry

Life time guarantee

Start to finish Treatment

Expert skills

Latest digital technology

The Dental Implant Procedure

How you can prepare for the implant procedure

What you can expect

Silver Oaks Dental Clinic

Dental Treatments

News & Articles

Silver Oaks Dental Clinic