Dental Implants – Campbell, CA

Initial Dental Implant Consultation

If you’ve lost one or more teeth, you may be a candidate for dental implants. Dr. Ho will perform the comprehensive consultation you need to ensure they are right for you. She’ll discuss your oral, medical, and lifestyle history while reviewing a CT scan of your mouth. Based on the results of the consultation, you may need additional treatments to be a candidate for dental implants, like gum disease therapy, bone grafting, or a sinus lift.

Dental Implant Surgery

After you’ve healed from any previous treatments, you’re scheduled for your implant placement surgery. Dr. Ho works with a experienced dental implant specialists for this procedure to give you the highest chance of successful treatment.

In some cases, you may need sedation or general anesthesia to ensure your comfort. During the process, your gum tissue is opened to expose your jawbone. Small holes are strategically drilled into it to insert the titanium posts. Your tissue is stitched closed, and you’ll spend the next several weeks healing.

Dental Implant Osseointegration & Abutment Placement

The implant posts stimulate your jaw to encourage new bone growth. Your jaw will fuse to the posts over the next few months through a process called osseointegration. This gives your dental implants a secure foundation to support your restorations.

Before you can get your new tooth, you’ll need a second minor surgery to place abutments on each post. The special fixtures connect your restorations to your implants. It takes about two weeks for your gum tissue to heal before you can move on to the final step in your treatment.

Placement of Dental Implant Restorations

Your restorations – which may be crowns, bridges, or dentures, depending on the number of teeth you’re missing – are carefully crafted from high-quality material for the utmost durability without compromising aesthetics. They are designed to mimic your natural teeth, including their color, size, and shape. No one will be able to tell they aren’t your real teeth.

After your custom-made restoration is ready, Dr. Ho attaches it to your posts to complete your smile. In just a few days, you won’t even notice your new teeth aren’t your own.

Day-to-Day Benefits

• Better Aesthetics : Implant-supported teeth offer superior oral function and aesthetics. They’ll be virtually impossible to distinguish from the rest of your natural smile, so you can show it off with confidence whether you’re with friends and family or people you’re meeting for the first time.
• Enjoy Your Favorite Foods with Ease : Dental implants have no trouble whatsoever breaking down even the toughest foods. Whether you enjoy thick cuts of meat, nuts, crunchy fruits and vegetables, or other foods you wouldn’t be able to eat easily with a denture, dental implants are right for you.
• Simple At-Home Oral Hygiene : There’s no need to worry about removing your oral appliance just to practice brushing and flossing. Simply perform these habits like you would for your natural teeth to keep your dental implants free of plaque (and your gum tissue healthy as well!)

Health Benefits

• Boost Your Oral and Overall Health : While traditional dentures and bridges are designed to sit atop the gum line, dental implants are the only reconstructive service today that also replaces the natural tooth root. This provides important, healthy stimulation to the jawbone and helps patients maintain better oral health over the years.
• Retain Your Natural Tooth Structure : Dental implants can be placed conservatively and won’t require healthy teeth to be negatively altered to accommodate them. This cannot be said for other tooth replacement options like dental bridges.
• Lower Your Risk for Future Tooth Loss : The more teeth you lose, the more at risk you are of losing additional teeth due to your jawbone tissue deteriorating over time. Consistent stimulation ensures your neighboring teeth remain in place and don’t shift to compensate for the open gap.

Long-Term Benefits

• The Best Longevity : Implants are designed to last for decades or even the rest of the patient’s life with the help of proper maintenance. This makes them truly unique compared to other solutions, which will require replacement every several years or so.
• High Success Rate : Dental implants are known for maintaining success rates as high as 98% when placed by a trained professional. This means you can have the confidence knowing your dental implant will remain in place for decades to come.
• Save Money on Future Tooth Replacements : It’s true that the upfront cost for dental implants is higher, but this is because the long-term costs associated with treatment are dramatically lower compared to bridges or dentures. This makes them the best long-term solution financially to tooth loss, no matter how severe.

Who Is a Good Candidate for Dental Implants?

Today, more adults qualify for dental implants than ever before, but you must still meet certain criteria in order to ensure successful treatment. To be cleared for dental implant surgery, you’ll need to have:

• Sufficient general health – Since dental implant placement involves oral surgery, you’ll have to verify with your primary care provider that you’re well enough to undergo the procedure.
• Great oral health – Gum disease, decay in your remaining teeth, and other oral health issues could jeopardize the success of your implants.
• Strong jawbone – Without enough healthy jawbone density, your implants won’t be able to form a strong foundation and will ultimately fail. Luckily, bone grafting is often available to strengthen the area and give the implants the support they need.

After any existing health concerns have been addressed, your dental implant dentist in Campbell can start planning out your tooth replacement journey. The details will depend on the number of teeth you need to replace.

Missing One Tooth

The most lifelike way to replace a single missing tooth is to position one implant post into the empty spot and then secure a customized dental crown on top. Unlike the traditional way to replace one tooth (a dental bridge), an implant doesn’t require the surrounding teeth to be altered in any way, making it the more conservative and healthier choice in the long run.

Missing Multiple Teeth

While we can use several implants and crowns to support multiple missing teeth throughout the mouth, we may elect to have them support a partial denture instead. For several consecutive missing teeth, an implant can be anchored at either end of the gap to provide ample support for a dental bridge that doesn’t rely on remaining teeth. Both of these options are much more reliable and long-lasting than their conventional counterparts.

Missing All Teeth

If all of your natural teeth have been lost on your upper or lower arch, an implant denture can bring them all back in a way that flawlessly mimics your original smile. A small number of implant posts (usually between four and eight) can be strategically positioned throughout the jaw, creating enough support for a full denture. This prosthetic can be either fixed in place or removable, depending on your needs and preferences.

Learn More About Implant Dentures

Types of Dental Implants

The number of teeth missing is probably one of the biggest factors that can influence the final cost of the dental implant process. When one or two teeth are missing, a single implant along with a crown (or a pair of crowns) is likely all you’ll need. But if several teeth in a row are missing, it makes more sense to get two dental implants to support a dental bridge. And of course, if all your teeth are missing and you want to replace them with implant dentures, you’ll need about four to eight implant posts on average.

What Are the Stages of Dental Implant Treatment?

Naturally, the surgery to place your dental implants will come with its own cost. However, it’s hardly the only appointment you’ll need to make; receiving your abutment and attaching your crown (or bridge or dentures) will require separate visits and thus carry a separate cost. And in some cases, you need to take preparatory procedures into account. For example, you can only receive dental implants if you have overall healthy gums; if you have gum disease, you’ll need to pay for treatment before it’s safe for us to place dental implants in your mouth.

Are Dental Implants Worth the Investment?

The next question after “What is the cost of dental implants?” is “Will the procedure be worth the price?” In most cases, you’ll find that the answer is “yes”, especially in the long term. Implants are the only kind of dental restoration that prevents bone loss in the jaw, which can cause you to look older. They also look natural in your mouth, and they’re stronger and more stable than traditional dentures or bridges. You might even find that they’re more cost-effective than other restorations because they can last a lifetime – in other words, you won’t need to replace them every five to 10 years!

Does My Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?

Dental implants don’t usually receive dental benefits, but certain companies might offer partial coverage, so it’s important to check your plan. You might also see if your plan might help you pay for related procedures such as a consultation or gum disease treatment. Our practice is in-network with Delta Dental Premier, and we can file a claim with most major PPO providers. For patients without dental insurance, low-to-no interest financing through CareCredit might be an option.

Make Oral Hygiene a Priority

Gum disease is one of the leading causes of implant failure. As such, you’ll want to make sure that the area around your dental implants is as clean as possible; you don’t want bacteria to start attacking the tissues holding your new teeth in place. Remember to brush and floss at least two times every day. You should also rinse with an ADA-approved mouthwash to further reduce the presence of harmful bacteria inside your mouth.

Eat a Healthy Diet

Dental implants give you the freedom to eat whatever you want, but you’ll want to put a limit on how often you indulge in sugary or starchy snacks that can put your oral health at risk. Instead, try eating more foods that are rich in calcium and vitamin C; these nutrients contribute to healthy bone and gum tissue, which can go a long way toward helping your dental implants remain in place.

Break Bad Habits

There are several oral habits that could put your dental implants (and your natural teeth) at risk without you even realizing it. Examples of habits you’ll want to avoid include:

• Smoking or using any kind of tobacco product.
• Chewing on your fingernails, the tip of your pen, or any other hard, inedible object.
• Crunching ice, peppermints, and other overly hard foods.
• Tearing open packaging with your teeth instead of with scissors or another tool designed for the job.

Take whatever steps are necessary to break these habits before they lead to problems with your implants. One strategy is to replace a negative habit with a positive one. For instance, people who bite their nails might start carrying around sugar-free gum to chew instead.

Protect Your Dental Implants

You shouldn’t play any kind of sport without first making sure that your dental implants are properly protected. Invest in a custom-made mouthguard that will keep your entire smile safe if you ever take a blow to the face or jaw. You can also wear a mouthguard at night to protect your implants from involuntary clenching and grinding.

Schedule Regular Dental Checkups

When you visit Dr. Karen Ho for a dental checkup and cleaning every six months, she can take a quick look at your dental implant post and the restoration it supports to make sure that both are still in good shape. If she finds any issues, she’ll be able to address them long before they pose a serious risk to your new teeth.