Instant Dental Implants

Dental implants come in many shapes and sizes, and each dental implant has unique capabilities and attributes. Today, I wish to speak a little on a relatively recent development, which are instant implants. These dental implants are also called immediate load dental implants, and as their name implies, you do not need a healing time, but instead, can get them inserted, and then immediately start to use them for eating and biting, of course only once the anaesthetic wears off, or else you risk biting into your own mouth or tongue.

Healing Times

With regular dental implants, there is a 3 to 6 month period in which the dental implant is sewn up and is totally covered by the gums and periodontal tissue. Patients are without a tooth for this time. This healing time is needed so that the dental implant can stabilize within the jaw, and if it weren’t for this healing time, biting and chewing would dislodge the dental implant, and change the angle at which it protrudes from the jawbone. This of course would result in dental implant failure, and possibly even damage to the jawbone and/or the periodontium. The jawbone needs to accept the dental implant and integrate it into itself, this process is known as osseointegration.

Instant Implants

This is not the case with instant implants. These dental implants, now available from most every dental implant manufacturer in existence have certain features that differentiate them from the rest of dental implants. Namely, these dental implants are tapered at the end, to actually resemble a screw with wide wings. When they are inserted, they act just like a screw and actually drill into the jawbone, locking into the bone material and thus holding itself fast. This way, there is no fear of being dislodged while the osseointegration process is underway. Osseointegration will still occur, and it is important that it does, but the dental implant can be used during this time as well. These dental implants also usually have a smaller diameter, as the diameter does not play a role in stability if the ends are tapered.

Caveat Emptor

As with all new medical and biotechnologies, there are upsides and downsides as well, and this is no different with this “new” form of dental implants either. First and foremost, dental implants are not for everyone, and immediate load dental implants further exclude many patients who would be interested in getting them. Only patients with healthy, strong and sufficiently dense bone material will be able to get these forms of dental implants, as the tapered ends need sufficient bone material in order to make sure that they do not dislodge or crack the jaw bone. Certain conditions, like osteoporosis, diabetes, advanced HIV, and a host of other illnesses that affect the skeletal structure exclude people entirely from getting these dental implants, but some people are unfortunate enough to be born with jaw bones that are just not dense enough to get these implants at all.
The other main thing that can exclude patients is the price. Dental implants are expensive enough as they are, but instant implants carry an extra price with them, one that is sometimes up to a third more than the price of the original dental implant.
Aside from these, I can only recommend getting these implants, as they are done much quicker and with fewer visits to the dentist, which are, let’s face it, inconvenient at best.

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