Dental Implants – Estero, FL

Initial Dental Implant Consultation

Your journey towards a new smile starts with a consultation with one of our highly experienced dentists. They’ll discuss your smile goals with you, examine your mouth, and review your medical history to see if dental implants are a good choice. If you’re not a qualified candidate right away, one or more preliminary treatments such as gum disease therapy or bone grafting can likely get you ready for your new smile.

Dental Implant Surgery

Unlike other dental offices, Smile Rejuvenations is proud to offer start-to-finish convenience when it comes to dental implant treatment. Instead of spending more time, money, and hassle visiting an unfamiliar specialist for your dental implant surgery, we can complete every step of your treatment right here in our Estero dental office. You’ll rebuild your smile with a team you already know and trust!

First, we’ll numb your mouth and make sure you’re completely comfortable. Then, we’ll make a small incision in your gums to access your jawbone. Your dental implant will be placed into the predetermined location within the bone and then the gums will be closed around it. We’ll place a protective cap around the top of the implant, and then you’ll be sent home to heal.

Dental Implant Osseointegration & Abutment Placement

While you’ll likely recover from dental implant surgery within a week or so, your jawbone will need much more time to heal before we can move on to the final step. Over the next four to six months, your dental implant will undergo a unique process called osseointegration. This is where the titanium post fuses with the surrounding bone tissue to form a solid, reliable foundation for your new teeth. Once you’ve finished healing, you’ll return to our dental office to have a small connector piece called an abutment attached to your implant. From there, you’ll heal for about two weeks while we craft your custom restoration.

Delivery of Dental Implant Restorations

Before you know it, you’ll be returning to our dental office for the final step of the dental implant process. During this appointment, we’ll securely fasten your new dental crown, bridge, partial, or full denture into place. Next, we’ll check to ensure your bite is comfortable, that you’re pleased with the results, and that we’ve answered all your questions about life with dental implants. After that, you’ll be ready to go out and enjoy your brand-new smile!

Day-to-Day Benefits

Even if you’re missing only a single tooth, you might already understand the negative consequences it can have on your bite, speech, and smile. Fortunately, dental implants can fill the space left behind, allowing for a more enjoyable everyday experience. Here are several day-to-day advantages you can enjoy:

• Efficiency – Instead of needing to replace every missing tooth, you can restore your smile with four to six implants at a time for stable and reliable results.
• Versatility – Dental implants are specifically designed for each patient’s smile and can replace one, several, or all of your missing teeth.
• Simple maintenance – Instead of needing special cleaning products or solutions to care for your restorations, you’ll simply need to practice normal oral hygiene and visit your dentist every six months to maintain your dental implants.

Health Benefits

You can’t deny the various cosmetic benefits of natural-looking, entirely personalized dental implants. That said, you can also expect to appreciate several health benefits with your new restorations, including:

• Avoid bone loss – After losing teeth, your jawbone will begin to deteriorate due to the lack of blood flow stimulation. Since dental implants serve as your new roots, they can provide the stimulus your bone tissue needs to remain healthy and strong.
• Superior stability – Your dental implants should bond and become one with your jawbone, meaning your restorations won’t shift out of place while you’re eating or talking. You’ll be able to munch on all your favorite foods without any dietary restrictions.
• Healthy lifestyle – Since you can eat most foods, you’ll be able to maintain a nutritious and vitamin-rich diet, including fresh fruits, veggies, and lean proteins.

Long-Term Benefits

While simply rebuilding your smile is important for your appearance and confidence, it’s the fact that your dental implants can last several decades to a lifetime that makes them worthwhile! In addition to being a long-lasting solution, you can expect the following advantages:

• Youthful appearance – By stimulating the jawbone and promoting stronger tissue, your dental implants can help preserve a more youthful facial shape.
• Incredible success rate – Dental implants are known to have a success rate of about 95%, even 10 years after being placed.
• No frequent adjustments – You won’t need to adjust or replace your restorations as often as traditional options, like dental bridges and dentures, which can save you more money in the long run.

Missing Single Tooth

A dental implant is an excellent way to replace a single missing tooth from the root up. We’ll simply place an implant where the missing tooth’s root used to be and top it with a beautiful dental crown. While a traditional dental bridge needs to alter healthy teeth to replace a missing tooth, a dental implant doesn’t require this because it is self-supporting.

Missing Multiple Teeth

If you’re missing several teeth in a row, you may not need to replace each individual tooth with a dental implant. Instead, an implant bridge may be a better option! For this restoration, we’ll place one dental implant on either side of the gap in your smile, then top them with a custom-made bridge. This way, you won’t need to have your remaining teeth altered. For missing teeth in different areas of the mouth, several precisely placed dental implants can support a partial denture.

Missing All Your Teeth

For patients with no natural teeth left, traditional removable dentures are no longer your only option! With four to six dental implants placed in specific areas around the mouth, we can securely anchor a full denture. We offer both fixed and removable varieties to suit your unique needs and preferences. Implant dentures provide unmatched functionality, comfort, aesthetics, and longevity.

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Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery

Not every patient is eligible for dental implants initially. However, we can potentially help you become a great candidate with a preliminary procedure or two! Treatments like gum disease therapy and bone grafting can help maximize your chances for successful dental implant treatment. Naturally, these will add to your final cost.

The dental implant placement surgery will incur a fee as well, including any necessary sedation. Thankfully, we perform dental implant surgery right here in-house, so you won’t need to worry about paying a separate outside specialist.

The Parts of Your Dental Implant

Next, we’ll need to factor in the cost of your dental implant(s), which will involve:

• How many teeth you’re missing: Typically, the more teeth you need to replace, the more expensive your treatment will be.
• What type of restoration you need: Custom-made crowns, bridges, partials, and full dentures each come with a cost of their own.
• The materials your dental implant is made of: Dental implants are typically made of porcelain and titanium, but sometimes they can be made of other materials like zirconia.
• The brand of your specific dental implant: Just like cars, different companies and manufacturers make dental implants, and each varies slightly in price.

How Dental Implants Can Save You Money

While dental implants initially cost more than other tooth replacement options, they can potentially save you thousands of dollars over time. Dentures and bridges need to be replaced every five to seven years, which can end up costing you a lot of time and money in the long run. On the other hand, dental implants have the potential to last a lifetime! Plus, you won’t need to buy any special cleaning products and you can generally expect to pay less for your oral healthcare costs. But most importantly, you can’t put a price on the confidence and quality of life dental implants can restore.

Dental Insurance & Dental Implants

Every dental insurance plan is slightly different, but most don’t fully cover dental implants. Thankfully, they do typically cover many individual aspects of dental implant treatment. For example, your insurance may partially cover preliminary treatments, the consultation, sedation dentistry, and even the restoration. Our experienced team will be happy to review the details of your plan to make sure that your benefits are being maximized.

How to Make Dental Implants More Affordable

If you don’t have dental insurance, or if you aren’t satisfied with your coverage, we can still help make dental implants affordable with third-party financing. CareCredit is a financing company that offers low- to no-interest payment plans for dental (and medical) services. Eligible patients can get the treatment they need right away and then make smaller, more manageable payments over the coming months according to their payment plan.

Bone Grafting

Dental implants fuse with the bone tissue in the jaw, so it’s important that your jawbone has enough density prior to treatment. Unfortunately, this can be a challenge for many patients suffering from tooth loss, since jawbone deterioration is a natural side effect once a tooth goes missing. If you currently don’t have enough jawbone density to support a dental implant, we may be able to help with a treatment called a bone graft.

A bone graft adds more structure to the weakened part of your bone so a dental implant can be placed. Bone grafting material will be taken from another part of your body or from a donor and placed onto the selected portion of your jaw. As the grafted tissue fuses with the existing structure, it will promote the growth of new bone tissue. In just a few months, your jaw should be strong enough to have a dental implant placed.

Sinus Lifts

Your sinus cavity sits just above your back upper molars. If your upper jawbone isn’t dense enough, a dental implant could poke through into the sinuses. Fortunately, a special type of bone graft can be used to prevent this. This advanced dental implant procedure in Estero is called a sinus lift. This is where an incision is made in the gums to reach the jawbone, and a small window is made in the bone. From there, the membrane that holds the sinuses is gently pushed up and the empty space is filled with grafting material. The window is then sealed and the gums are closed. Much like a bone graft, this new material will encourage bone tissue growth in the weakened area, giving your jawbone the density it needs to support a dental implant.

Ridge Expansion

In some cases, the jawbone may not be wide enough to accommodate a dental implant. In these cases, ridge expansion is often recommended. For this advanced dental implant procedure, the jawbone ridge is carefully divided into inner and outer segments. These segments are gently moved apart, and the space between the sections is filled with bone grafting material. Again, this grafted material will stimulate the existing structure, promoting new bone tissue growth and providing the density needed for dental implants.

PRP/PRF Treatment

Platelet-rich fibrin and platelet-rich plasma treatment (PRP/PRF treatment) is an excellent option to ensure optimal healing and successful results, and it’s often used in conjunction with the above advanced services. For this procedure, some of your blood is drawn and placed into a special machine that separates the plasma. The plasma is then reintroduced into the area where the bone graft, sinus lift, or ridge expansion was completed. This helps your body speed up the healing time, and it also reduces swelling and discomfort. Not every patient who needs an advanced dental implant procedure will also need PRP/PRF treatment, but we may recommend it in some cases depending on your unique situation.

Practice Good Dental Habits

Unlike your natural teeth, your dental implants aren’t at risk of developing cavities. Instead, it’s vital to practice good dental habits to keep your gums healthy. The number one cause of dental implant failure is peri-implantitis, which is often brought on by poor oral hygiene. If plaque and bacteria build up around your dental implant, your gums could develop this dangerous infection. Over time, the bacteria will weaken and destroy the connective tissues that help hold your implant in place!

Fortunately, you can dramatically reduce your risk of this happening by brushing for two minutes twice a day, flossing daily, and rinsing with mouthwash regularly. Naturally, these are all great habits for taking care of your remaining natural teeth as well!

Eat a Healthy Diet

Dental implants can restore 80% or more of your natural biting force, allowing you to eat all your favorite foods once again! Take advantage of this by eating lots of foods that contain calcium and vitamin C. Calcium and other nutrients will help the tissues around your dental implants stay strong and healthy. Meanwhile, vitamin C will help to keep your risk of infections like peri-implantitis low.

Break Bad Habits

While a few healthy habits can go a long way in extending the lifespan of your dental implants, a few bad choices can take years off how long you can expect your dental implants to last. If you want to make the most out of your newly rebuilt smile, you’ll do well to:

• Quit smoking: Smoking can interfere with osseointegration and leaves your mouth vulnerable to infections like peri-implantitis. When you quit this habit, your smile and your body will thank you.
• Stop chewing on hard objects: Chewing on things like ice, pen caps, fingernails, and other hard items can damage your dental implant restoration and your natural teeth.
• Refrain from using your teeth as tools: You should never use your teeth to open containers or hold non-food items. One wrong move could send you back to us with a chipped or cracked dental implant!

Protect Your Dental Implants

Even though dental implants are strong and embedded firmly into your jawbone, they’re not indestructible. If you play sports, it’s essential that you wear an athletic sports mouthguard to protect yourself from a dental injury. If you grind your teeth at night, you should wear a nightguard for bruxism to reduce extra pressure and wear on your smile.

Schedule Regular Dental Checkups

No matter how many teeth you’ve replaced with dental implants, you should come to see us every six months for your routine checkup and cleaning. Even if your teeth look and feel fine to you, seeing us for these quick appointments can help us spot the earliest signs of trouble long before they cause you problems. Additionally, a thorough cleaning will help keep your implants shiny and oral health problems at bay.

Am I Too Young or Too Old to Get Dental Implants?

Since dental implants are embedded in the jawbone, we don’t recommend them for patients who are under the age of 18 because their jaws are still growing, However, there is no upper age limit for dental implants! As long as you are healthy enough to undergo minor surgery, are free of issues like gum disease, and have adequate jawbone density, you qualify for dental implants. If you don’t meet these requirements right away, we may be able to help you become a candidate for dental implants with preliminary procedures like a bone graft or periodontal therapy.

Can I Get Dental Implants If I Smoke?

It is possible for patients who smoke to get dental implants. However, it’s important to note that you’ll need to refrain from smoking in the week or two leading up to your dental implant surgery, and you’ll need to continue to not smoke for several weeks afterward to ensure proper healing. Additionally, dental implant failure is more common in smokers, so now is the perfect time to quit the habit.

Does Getting Dental Implants Hurt?

Rebuilding your smile with dental implants should be virtually painless. Before we begin, your mouth will be numbed thoroughly so you shouldn’t feel a thing during the procedure. Additionally, you may also opt for one of our dental sedation treatments for maximum comfort depending on your unique situation. After your dental implant surgery, it’s normal to experience swelling, discomfort, and intermittent bleeding in the mouth as you heal. Fortunately, these symptoms should be mild and fade on their own very quickly. Most patients feel ready to go back to their normal daily activities within just a day or so.

How Long Do Dental Implants Last?

Dental implants are the longest lasting tooth replacement option available. Dentures and dental bridges inevitably lose their fit over time and need to be replaced every five to ten years or so. Alternatively, dental implants have the potential to last for decades! Since they’re anchored in the jawbone just like natural teeth, proper oral hygiene is all that’s needed to keep them firmly in place. In fact, most patients can expect to enjoy their dental implants for life!

Do Dental Implants Feel Natural?

Dental implants are designed to look, feel, and function just like natural teeth. They’re the only option that replicates every portion of a missing tooth, from the roots to the crown. This makes them nearly indistinguishable from natural teeth in every way. You won’t feel them at all as you eat, talk, laugh, and go about your day. In fact, some patients sometimes forget they even have dental implants!