People often wonder just what goes on during the dental implant process. In Marylebone, at David Madruga, we make sure our patients fully understand what the dental implants process involves because it requires a certain amount of commitment.

Let’s take a look at what goes on with a very simple single dental implant insertion.

The consultation

During your consultation, Dr David Madruga Gonzalez will thoroughly examine your teeth to make sure that you are able to receive dental implants. The main thing he will be looking at is your jawbone in the area where you lost a tooth. It needs to be strong and dense in order to be able to withstand the strong forces created by biting and chewing without the implant coming loose. If you have been missing a tooth for quite a while, chances are that there will be some deterioration in the bone in that area. If so, you may need to have a bone graft, a sinus lift, or cheek implants to fix this.

If you are a smoker or have uncontrolled type 2 diabetes, it is going to interfere with your healing, so you will have to give up smoking and get the diabetes under control before you can have dental implants.

The surgery

This is performed under local anaesthetic, with either oral or intravenous sedation if you are anxious. There is not much pain because there are fewer nerves in the jawbone. Once the dental implant is in place, it takes about two months for the titanium post to integrate with the jawbone in a process called osseointegration. The implant stimulates the jawbone to grow new tissue all over it, to holding it in place like a natural tooth root.

Your new teeth

After osseointegration, you come back and Dr Madruga Gonzalez fits your new custom-made porcelain crown. And after that, you are good to go.

Care

You need to take good care of your implants with regular diligent cleaning to remove plaque. If it builds up enough to cause gum disease, this can lead to your implant becoming loose. If you take good care, however, your implant can last you for the rest of your life.