Dental Implants – Gainesville, GA

Initial Dental Implant Consultation

You’ll meet with Dr. Her to discuss your smile goals, and he’ll determine whether you’re eligible for dental implants. A thorough examination using the Sirona® 3D Cone Beam Scanner will allow him to review your teeth, gums, bone, nerves, tissues, and other facial structures to plan your treatment more accurately and precisely. If signs of periodontal disease, severe tooth decay, or a weakened jawbone appear, you may be required to undergo preliminary treatments (i.e., bone grafting, periodontal therapy, tooth extraction) before moving forward with dental implant surgery.

Dental Implant Surgery

Dr. Her is pleased to keep patients in-house, avoiding any need for an outside referral. By performing the entire process in our Gainesville office, he can ensure safety, comfort, and a successful procedure. Once you receive local anesthesia to numb your mouth, he will make one or more small incisions in your gum tissues to expose the existing bone. Carefully placing each dental implant, your implant dentist in Gainesville will then close the tissue and place protective healing caps over each surgical site.

Dental Implant Osseointegration/Abutment

After your surgery is complete, you will be instructed to spend the next 3-6 months recovering at home and allowing osseointegration to occur. This is the process of your implants fusing with your jawbone. This must be successful to ensure they remain in place. Once you are healed, you will return for another small procedure that requires placing metal abutments on top of each dental implant. These will serve as connector appliances between your implants and customized restoration.

Delivery of Dental Implant Restorations

The final phase of the dental implant process involves receiving your customized restoration. Made by skilled lab technicians, the size, shape, and color of your new teeth will blend in beautifully with the rest of your smile, making it virtually impossible for anyone to tell the difference. Because dental implants in Gainesville look, feel, and act like regular teeth, you’ll begin to feel more comfortable and confident in your appearance, allowing you to embrace a better quality of life, eat the foods you love, and enjoy a healthier smile that can last 30 years or more with proper care.

Day-to-Day Benefits

• Better oral health – Instead of facing a time-consuming morning and nighttime routine trying to clean your teeth and prosthetics, dental implants look and act just like regular teeth. This makes the oral hygiene routine much easier, effectively reducing your risk for tooth decay and gum disease.
• Improved bite force – Because dental implants in Gainesville stimulate bone tissue, they restore your biting force much more than a traditional bridge or denture. This means eating your favorite foods is possible again, even those that are hard or crunchy. Not to mention, you’ll never need to worry about slippage or your prosthetic accidentally falling out.
• More youthful appearance – Dental implants restore blood flow to your face, ensuring that proper nutrients can travel to your oral and facial tissue. When teeth are lost, skin sags prematurely, resulting in a more sunken and older appearance. Dental implants restore this process and prevent the premature signs of aging.

Health Benefits

• No dental drift – While other tooth replacement options can prevent neighboring teeth from shifting out of place, dental implants are the only solution that effectively restores functions that we often take for granted when teeth are lost.
• Continuous jawbone stimulation - Because implants are anchored inside your jawbone, the bone is being stimulated any time you chew. This stimulation allows you to keep your fullest biting force and prevent the bone from shrinking, which is very common among individuals with tooth loss.
• Your healthy teeth remain untouched – Unlike dental bridges that require altering your natural, healthy teeth, dental implants do not require the preparation of other teeth. Instead, they replace only the missing tooth and work within the vacated socket.
• Longer Life – It is believed that individuals over the age of 65 with 5 or more teeth have a shorter lifespan. Using dental implants to replace your missing teeth can help to reduce your risk for systemic diseases that are known to shorten a person’s life. Heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and other common conditions no longer have to be as much of a concern with dental implants.

Long-Term Benefits

• Success rate – With an average success rate as high as 98 percent over 10 years, you can smile and eat your favorite meals with confidence.
• Improved longevity – Because of the osseointegration process that occurs after implants are placed by an implant dentist in Gainesville, you can expect your tooth replacement to last several decades without worry.
• Saving money – Dental adhesives, special cleaning solutions, and frequent adjustments and replacements every few years are not what you’ll be spending your money on should you choose dental implants. Instead, you’ll get to use your hard-earned dollars on other items you want while enjoying a healthier, longer-lasting smile.

Who is a Good Candidate for Dental Implants?

With more than 500,000 dental implants placed each year, millions of individuals in the United States are living with these unique prosthetics and enjoying every minute. As an adult with missing teeth, you want the opportunity to enjoy life to the fullest, which is why our team at Lifetime Dental of Gainesville will thoroughly examine your oral and facial structures to determine your eligibility. We’ll look at three different factors:

• Your oral health and if you need periodontal therapy or tooth extraction
• Your overall health and if you’re able to undergo minor oral surgery without the concern of implant failure
• Your jawbone density and if there is enough to support your implants and restoration. If not, you’ll likely need a bone graft

Missing One Tooth

Even one missing tooth can make it difficult to speak and eat. You may even feel embarrassed to smile. This is why it’s important to have it replaced as soon as possible. Replacing a single tooth requires one implant to be placed directly into the jaw and given several months to heal. Once your bone and gum tissue has healed around the implant, we can place an abutment, which is used to stabilize the implant crown. The crown used to restore the implant is made from all-ceramic material, typically porcelain, for the most natural-looking esthetics.

Missing Multiple Teeth

Unlike traditional dental bridges, implant bridges do not require the removal of existing tooth enamel just to have them placed. A pair of dental implants can lay the groundwork for a strong three or four-crown bridge. But even if your teeth are not consecutively missing, we can create an implant partial that works just like a traditional prosthetic but instead of using metal clips, it attaches to your dental implants in Gainesville.

Missing All Teeth

By using a series of dental implants, typically four to six, we can create a stable foundation for your new full denture, whether it’s fixed or removable. In this way, implant dentures actually help you save money on dental costs overall. They also allow you to enjoy a greater bite force and chewing power, so you can eat the foods you love without worrying about your prosthetic slipping or falling out in front of others.

Learn More About Implant Dentures

Learn More About All-on-4

Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery

For starters, if you need to have preparatory treatments to make implant placement viable, such as bone grafts, periodontal therapy, or sinus lifts, this will increase overall costs. If you are told you need one or multiple of these procedures before receiving dental implants, it’s because they ensure the long-term health and success of your tooth replacement.

The same applies depending on the extensiveness of your tooth loss. If you need to have multiple implants placed, this increases the length and complexity of your oral surgery. The amount of anesthesia used to make your treatment not only comfortable, but possible, will also influence your final costs.

Thankfully, because our office keeps the entire process in-house, you can expect your fees to be more compact and easier to understand when all is said and done.

The Parts of Your Dental Implant

When multiple implants are needed to rebuild your smile, more materials are required to make these implants. In most cases, that material is titanium, a specialized resource that is biocompatible with bone and gum tissue. Like cars or other highly customized items, there are different makes and models of dental implants that work better or last longer than others, which influence your final price tag. Of course, our team is happy to explain why we use certain implants over others and how they make a difference in your tooth replacement.

Final Dental Implant Restoration

With more implants come more complex dental restorations to complete your smile. For example, a single implant only requires one dental crown to cover the post and fill the gap in your mouth. However, a pair of implants will need a bridge and several implants will need a dedicated denture. The larger the restoration, the more time and materials are needed to craft it.

Does My Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?

Dental insurance does not cover dental implants in most cases. However, you may be able to receive partial coverage for preparatory treatments or restorations used during the tooth replacement process. Our team will review your plan’s benefits to confirm if coverage is available for any phases of your care. If there is coverage, it will likely be only for a specific percentage of the cost.

Making Dental Implants Affordable

If you do not have dental insurance at this time, there are other options for you to consider to make your dental implants affordable. For example, financing through CareCredit allows you to make monthly installments on more expensive services like dental implants with little to no interest attached. This makes more costly services affordable even to those on a budget. You may also be able to save money on preventive services by signing up for our in-house Lifetime Club, a patient membership plan that provides guaranteed rates on preventive services and discounts on other in-house treatments.

Bone Grafting

To support strong dental implants, it is crucial that you have a healthy jawbone! If you don’t have enough jawbone tissue, osseointegration will not take place. This means that your dental implants are much more likely to become loose or fall out. During your consultation with us, we will check the bone density levels in your jaw to determine if bone grafting is necessary for you. If you have experienced bone loss, a bone graft can restore lost tissue so successful implantation can take place.

Sinus Lifts

If there is deterioration in the upper jaw, the sinus cavities could be too close to the location where the dental implants need to be placed. That’s where a sinus lift comes into play. This is a specific type of bone grafting that addresses this situation. First, the gum tissue is opened, exposing the thin membrane that holds the sinuses. This is pushed back and out of the way before grafting material is added to hold it into place. After several months of healing, dental implants can be placed.

PRP/PRF Treatment

PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma and PRF stands for platelet-rich fibrin. These substances are obtained by drawing your blood and placing it into a centrifuge. Next, we use the platelet-rich portion of the blood to expedite healing after your oral surgery. This treatment has been clinically proven to help patients heal faster and with fewer complications after dental surgery. This also reduces your need for strong pain medication and anti-inflammatories following dental surgery and greatly lowers your risk of infection after oral surgery.

Ridge Expansion

This procedure is performed when the jaw isn’t wide enough to properly support upper implants. For this treatment, the ridge bone is divided and separated. This creates a space between the divided segments of bone that can be filled with bone grafting. After the area has healed, you can continue with the dental implant placement surgery.

What to Do Directly After Dental Implant Surgery

A blood clot will form around the surgical site as part of your body’s natural healing process. A dislodged blood clot can result in a lot of pain and delay your recovery. Therefore, your biggest priority should be to make sure that the blood clot stays in place. To do so, you need to keep these rules in mind:

• Do not spit. If you have excess saliva, either swallow it or use a tissue.
• Do not drink anything with a straw.
• Avoid smoking after your implant surgery.
• Try not to touch the surgical site with your fingers or tongue.

Common Side Effects When Recovering from Dental Implant Placement

There are several mild side effects that you may notice during the first few days after dental implant placement:

• Intermittent bleeding, which you can keep under control by applying light pressure to the area with clean gauze.
• Swelling, which can be reduced with a cold or warm compress.
• General discomfort, which you should be able to manage with over-the-counter pain medications.

If any of these effects last longer than they should or seem to get worse, please let us know immediately.

Your Diet After Dental Implant Surgery

As with most types of oral surgery, you should plan on eating only soft or liquid foods while your mouth is still recovering. Before your procedure, stock up on mashed potatoes, yogurt, scrambled eggs, pasta, and other soft options. While you should be able to return to your regular diet once your discomfort has faded, you should still stay away from crunchy or tough foods as much as possible; also, you should not chew directly on the implant site until you’ve received your crown, bridge, or denture.

Post-Op Health & Oral Hygiene

You can brush your teeth the day after your implant surgery. Be careful near the surgical sites; you don’t want to disturb the blood clot or the implant posts. We recommend rinsing with salt water at least two to three times every day to lower the risk of infection.

What to Do After Your New Teeth Are Attached

When new teeth are attached to your dental implant posts, you may notice some mild sensitivity. You can take ibuprofen or other types of pain medication if you need to. There shouldn’t be any swelling or bleeding at this stage; you can simply enjoy your new smile to the fullest.

Does dental implant surgery hurt?

Whether you’re having a single implant placed or many, the procedure itself should be virtually painless. In fact, most of our patients are able to go back to their daily routine the very next day. We typically administer a local anesthetic to numb your mouth before we insert the implants. Plus, the bone where they’re placed has very few pain-sensing nerves.

For the few days following your dental implant surgery, you may experience some soreness and general discomfort around the implant site. Typically, it’s nothing that can’t be remedied with over-the-counter pain medication such as ibuprofen. Using an icepack and a soft-food diet can help you make a speedy recovery and reduce any possibility of swelling.

How long do dental implants last?

If dental implants are properly cared for, they can last for up to 35 years. After your restorations have been permanently placed, your dentist in Gainesville will provide you with aftercare instructions so you can get the most out of your replacement teeth. Since they’re the closest solution to your natural teeth, you can care for them in the exact same way. Be sure to brush twice each day, floss, rinse with antibacterial mouthwash, and visit our office every six months for a professional checkup and cleaning.

Are dental implants right for me?

Not every patient that gets dental implants is a perfect candidate to begin with. Remember that just because you may not possess all of these qualities right now, it doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t get implants. It just means that you may need a preparatory procedure such as gum disease therapy or a bone graft beforehand.

Here are some qualities that make the best dental implant candidates:

• Healthy gums
• Committed to maintain their dental health
• Sufficient jawbone density
• Don’t have autoimmune diseases
• Don’t excessively drink or smoke

Can I get dental implants if I smoke?

Just because you smoke doesn’t necessarily mean you aren’t an eligible candidate for dental implants. Although, it’s important to know that smoking increases your risk of gum disease, slows down your healing process, and can ultimately result in implant failure. If you’re considering investing in this tooth replacement solution, consider quitting smoking so you can enjoy your new smile for longer.

Am I Too Old or Young to Get Dental Implants?

In order to be a suitable candidate for dental implants, a patient’s jawbone needs to have finished developing, meaning that we don’t typically recommend implants as an option for teens under the age of 16 – 18. That said, there is no upper age limit! As long as you’re in good oral health and have a healthy jawbone, or you’re willing to undergo any necessary preliminary procedures such as a dental bone graft, you’re never too old to replace your lost teeth with implants.

Will People Be Able to Tell That I Have Dental Implants?

One of the coolest aspects about dental implants is that they fully recreate your original teeth in terms of look, feel, and functionality. The restoration that’s secured on top of the posts, whether it’s a crown, bridge, or denture, will be crafted from precise impressions of your mouth, ensuring that it beautifully resembles your natural teeth. Simply put, people won’t be able to tell that you have dental implants unless you tell them yourself!

Is There Anything I Shouldn’t Eat with Dental Implants?

For the first couple of weeks after your dental implant surgery, you should avoid all foods that are particularly crunchy or hard to chew. You also shouldn’t consume any alcoholic, sugary, or acidic beverages, and you absolutely shouldn’t use a straw—this will disrupt the blood clots that form over the surgical sites. However, once your mouth has healed up, you can chow down on almost anything you’d be able to eat with your natural teeth! Some foods like chewy or sticky candy, or even nuts and ice, can still loosen, damage, or dislodge your implants, so it’s still wise to show a modicum of caution.

Will I Need to Take Work Off for Dental Implant Surgery?

Another great thing about the dental implant process is the lack of downtime following the procedure. Though it’s technically still a surgical procedure and you’ll absolutely need to rest on the day of, most patients can actually return to work within the following day or two. That said, it’s important to keep in mind that every case is different, and we’ll provide you with a recommendation for how many days you should take off (if any). For example, you should refrain from physically demanding tasks or work, as well as strenuous exercise, for at least 3 to 5 days afterwards. It might be wise to schedule your procedure on a Thursday or Friday, if possible, to help minimize the time you’re out of office.

Prioritize Daily Oral Hygiene

Dental implants can’t decay like natural teeth can, but the bone and tissue supporting them could still fall victim to infections like gum disease. When bacteria attack these tissues for too long, it could dissolve the bond between your jawbone and the implant post, resulting in dental implant failure.

To safeguard your implants, be sure to brush your teeth for two full minutes twice a day. If you haven’t already added flossing to your daily routine, consider doing so, as dangerous bacteria often gather in areas that your toothbrush can’t reach.

Stick to a Nutritious Diet

By eating foods that encourage healthy gums, you’ll be keeping the foundation of your dental implants healthy. Not only do fresh produce and dairy products promote overall health, but they also contain vital nutrients that keep your jawbone strong and your gum tissue infection-free.

Remember that when it comes to sugary and starchy foods, like potato chips and candy bars, moderation is key. Treating yourself every now and then shouldn’t be a problem, but overindulgence in such items makes it easier for harmful bacteria in your mouth to thrive.

Kick Bad Habits

Many people engage in habits that aren’t exactly great for oral health, such as smoking, chewing on pens/pencils, biting their fingernails, or crunching on ice. Just as these habits can damage natural teeth, they also pose risks for dental implants. Using your teeth to bite or chew anything other than food can break your implant restorations, and smoking increases your risk of oral infection and dental implant failure exponentially.

If you’re having trouble kicking these habits, ask a member of our team to point you toward the right resources.

Protect Your Teeth with a Mouthguard

If you’re prone to clenching and grinding your teeth while you sleep, wearing a protective nightguard is crucial. Otherwise, your implants (and any natural teeth you have left) are susceptible to long-term wear and tear.

On a similar note, you should wear an athletic mouthguard if you participate in any physical activities that carry the risk of impact to the face. That way, any injury to your implants is lessened.

Attend Two Dental Checkups a Year

No matter how many of your teeth have been replaced, seeing Dr. Her for two dental checkups a year is still essential. Many problems in the gums, implants, or remaining teeth can develop and progress significantly without your knowledge. When Dr. Her is able to regularly examine your mouth, he can detect such issues and plan to address them with conservative methods. This can save you a great deal of time and money in the long run!