| Here, the most frequent asked questions from the patients are presented.
Q.-What else do dental implants offer over conventional dental
treatments?
A.- a. Increase on the bone anchored support.
When losing a tooth, it is necessary to replace it immediately, but when
losing more than one, support and chewing capability diminishes and as
the patient exerts a force on the bridge, support teeth undergo a
biomechanical overload. Dental implants compensate that support lost
of the lost teeth in a great scale, recovering in this way the chewing
capability.
b. It prevents bone resorption.
An strong relationship between teeth in function and preservation of
alveolar bone; bone is kept due to the supported load when chewing.
However, when a tooth is lost, the lack of this load leads to a bone
reduction in this area.
c.Maintain healthy teeth:
Even in one tooth situation, an implant offers advantages. However a
bridge requires diminishing adjacent teeth, in addition a better aesthetic
due to osseous resorption prevention.
Q. - How successful are implants?
A. - First of all, the patient must be in good health, second; a suitable
individual diagnosis must be done and to select the most suitable
placement procedure for a final prosthetic result. Third, the implant must
be properly treated as well by the patient as the doctor. Under these
conditions, success ranks vary from 90% to 98% over the majority of the
published studies.
Q. - Is age an impediment for an implant treatment?
A. - No, health state is the determining factor.
Q. - Is osteoporosis an impediment for dental implants?
A.- Several studies indicates that implants failure is not related with
osteoporosis, Osseointegration success depends partly on receiving site
conditions, bone quantity and quality.
Besides, when osteoporosis is diagnosed, it is only in one part of the skeleton
and also osteoporosis affects more to long bones. The maxilla and jaw are
considered short bones.
Q. - How many implants do I need?
A. - The general rule is to replace each tooth with implants. It manages
to obtain similar types of anchorages like we with our natural teeth have.
To obtain this we must consider the total surface of the natural root and
to compare it with the implant surface. For example, back teeth have two
or three roots giving a total anchorage area from 450 mm2 to 533 mm2,
an implant consists of a single root, and the tooth can dissipate efficiently
bite forces whereas the implant is not capable to do it.
Fortunately implant companies have corresponded with implants with wider
diameter that improves these discrepancies.
Therefore, it is recommended an implant for each lost teeth, nevertheless
this could change depending on the individual situation and the restoration
type the patient wants.
Q. - Is it painful having a dental implant placed?
A. - People have so different pain tolerance levels. Most of the patients
report a little pain. They consider a normal extraction more painful than
implant placement. It must not be pain during the surgery due to
administration of local agents of anesthesia. Another factor to consider is
the number of implants to be placed. When the patient is too nervous or
requires having several implants placed, the procedure is in general performed
with sedation.
Q.-What about the cost of dental implants?
A.-Generally, implants rehabilitation is considered as an expensive procedure,
these procedures vary in complexity depending on the requirements and
conditions of the patient.
A survey to 350 patients, after they have completed their implants treatment,
they consider implants a good investment and they would do it again.
The benefits of having a chewing capability recovered, bone preservation and
do not have to prepare adjacent teeth, it is definitively worth.
Q.-Do insurances cover implants?
A. - Most medical insurances do not cover oral implants, although there are
some isolated cases where certain modalities of implants rehabilitation were
covered. Sometimes the insurance only covers part of the surgery cost.
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