Losing teeth is distressing and can occur due to trauma or disease. Unfortunately, tooth loss affects oral health and may compromise your jawbone and the health of natural teeth. If you cannot eat a varied and nutritious diet comfortably, tooth loss can impact your overall health. Without adequate nutrition, the body is less able to fight infection and disease. Dental implants can solve these problems, and if you are missing one or more teeth, they could be the solution you are seeking.

What are dental implants?

Dental implants are the most modern way to restore lost teeth and can provide some exciting advantages compared with more traditional tooth replacements. A dental implant artificially replaces a real tooth root and is a small post made from medical-grade titanium alloy which is surgically placed in the jawbone. Titanium is highly biocompatible, so the implant soon fuses with your jawbone, forming a stable and secure anchorage point for a replacement tooth.

Treatment is useful for restoring single teeth, multiple teeth or even complete arches. Fixed solutions include single implant-supported crowns, bridges restoring multiple teeth, as well as full-arch bridges that typically require five dental implants to secure them. Removable overdentures are a highly affordable solution that clip securely onto dental implants. Once fully restored, you can enjoy having teeth that look, feel and function just like your own.

Some Important Benefits of Implant Treatment Include:

• Preserving Your Jawbone – The pressure created when you bite or chew on natural teeth ensures the bone surrounding your tooth roots remains strong and healthy. After natural teeth are removed, the pressure is lost, and the jawbone is gradually resorbed. Bone loss is the reason why dentures soon begin to fit less securely, and why facial features start to collapse inward, a look that is prematurely aging.
  Dental implants are the only treatment to prevent bone loss, protecting and preserving your jawbone.
• Protecting Your Natural Teeth – A traditional tooth-supported bridge is made from crowns placed over the adjacent or abutment teeth and which are attached to the replacement tooth, called a pontic. These abutment teeth must be substantially reshaped to create enough room for the crowns, removing potentially healthy tooth structure that can only ever be artificially restored. It is a similar scenario with partial dentures held in place with clasps or special attachments, both of which can place stress on your teeth.
  Dental implants are free-standing and will only help to protect your teeth, ensuring they cannot shift position and sharing the stresses created as you bite and chew.
• Improving Appearance – When natural teeth are missing, your facial muscles are unsupported. Dental implants are custom-designed to provide just the right amount of support for your cheeks and lips, restoring and rejuvenating appearance.
  Here at Above & Beyond Dentistry in Vancouver, Washington, our dentist Dr. Low takes enormous care when designing dental implant teeth, creating smiles that look beautiful, healthy and natural, just like your original teeth or even better than before. When you know you look your best, it can help to improve self-confidence and self-esteem.
• Improved Nutrition – Failing or missing teeth can make it impossible to eat comfortably, but your biting force is considerably enhanced with dental implants. Your implant teeth will be strong and durable so you can enjoy a more varied and nutritious diet. Full denture wearers may find food is tastier as getting rid of upper dentures uncovers taste buds in the upper palate.

Who Can Have Dental Implants?

One of the nicest things about dental implants is that most adults can safely receive this treatment, provided your teeth and jaws have finished growing and developing. You don’t need to worry if you are a little older as this procedure is frequently enormously helpful for seniors and older adults, and especially for people with dentures. It is important to have reasonable dental and general health, and Dr. Low can carefully assess your suitability during an initial consult for dental implants in Battle Ground, Washington.

What to Expect During Implant Treatment?

If you decide to move forward with implant treatment, your implants are planned and placed using computer-guided technology, ensuring your implants are precisely positioned and angled to provide an optimal treatment outcome. Computer-guided implant surgery is quicker and smoother, so healing is faster. After a few months, the implants are securely integrated with the jawbone and are ready for your replacement teeth.

We offer another treatment called All-on-4 and which can also restore entire arches of teeth very soon after surgery.

What is All-on-4?

All-on-4 is a sophisticated technique allowing Dr. Low to restore an entire arch of teeth using just four dental implants. This cost-efficient treatment provides people with a full, fixed-arch prosthesis very shortly after surgery. One of the unique features of All-on-Four in Vancouver, Washington is the placement and angulation of the dental implants.

This remarkable technique requires only 4 implants in either the upper or lower jaw to support all the replacement teeth for that dental arch. All-on-4®* typically involves only one surgery to place all the implants, avoids the need for additional bone grafting procedures, and provides the instant gratification of receiving a full set of temporary teeth immediately on the same day as the initial procedure. As a permanent fixed replacement for all the teeth, the All-on-4 dental implant technique achieves unprecedented results with a minimal number of dental implants and surgical procedures, thereby making it an appealing cost-effective solution for permanently replacing a full set of teeth. Once post-surgical healing is complete and the All-on-4 dental implants have fully integrated with your jawbone, the temporary bridge is permanently replaced by your customized final bridge. These new permanent replacement teeth are completely secure and stable and function in a similar fashion as natural teeth.

Concerned About the cost of Dental Implants?

We offer flexible financing solutions including in-office financing, so there is no need to delay the implant treatment you need or desire.