Dental Implants

So dental implants are root form structures that get placed into the jawbone when teeth are missing. So the process for getting a dental implant first involves coming in for a consultation and we would review and do a clinical exam. Then we would take a 3-dimensional cone-beam or a CAT scan x-ray to measure the bone quality and quantity. Once the bone quantity and quality is determined and if the patient is a candidate for an implant, then the planning process begins. Based on that x-ray and based on that guide, the implants are being placed exactly where we want them to go. There's no questions about the angulations, or if the placement is incorrect, and using this technology of the guided surgery that we do here in the office, the patients basically leave without stitching and there's very little bleeding and much less post-op complications afterwards, and much less pain because of the way it's planned and completed in the office. Most patients are good candidates for dental implants. However, there has to be adequate bone and using the CAT scan or the cone-beam x-ray that we have here in the office, we can determine if the patient is a good candidate or not. Depending on how many implants are going in, the procedure could take anywhere from a couple of minutes to about 45 minutes to an hour. A single implant using the guided surgery technique that I discussed could take 15 to 20 minutes from start to finish, but if the patient is having a full arch of dental implants, it would take longer. Even with the guide, it would still take a little bit longer, but much faster than traditional methods of making incisions and opening up the gums and then re-stitching everything back up. So with the modern technology that we're using now, the procedure is much faster. So the feedback we've gotten from our patients, after having implants placed, is actually they're amazed at how fast the procedure went. They tell me that they're shocked at how painless it was.