A dental implant is a replacement for the root of your tooth and it can be used to replace single missing teeth; stabilize dentures; or they can replace an entire arch of teeth. Placement of the actual implant, is a minor surgical procedure that can be done in an Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons’ clinic under either sedation or local anaesthesia (freezing).
Other options might include dentures that hook to your teeth, or bridges where the teeth on either side of a gap are shaved down and capped. Implants, on the other hand, support the new tooth or denture directly, which can help preserve other teeth.
Surgeons work with your general dentist or denturist to provide the surgical aspects of the procedure. This might include removal of tooth or teeth, bone grafting, and placement of the implants.
Generally, your general dentist or denturist will place the crown or denture. It’s important that the surgeon is involved early in the process. If bone is preserved when teeth are removed (either by surgical technique, or a process called socket preservation) it can decrease the need for more involved procedures to rebuild the bone at a later date.
If you are considering dental implants to replace teeth or stabilize a denture, you can contact an Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon through the “find a surgeon” page, or by asking for a referral from your general dentists.
Surgeons from the Ontario Society of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery have largely created, and maintain the Wikipedia page on Dental Implants and have provided almost all of the photos for it. Below is a pdf file that you are free to download, use, and share.
1982 Toronto Summit: The inventor of dental implants, Per-Ingvar Brånemark joined the University of Toronto in 1982 to hold a landmark summit on his recent research in dental implants. It was this conference that brough dental implants to North America.
Logicwhatelse [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
Coronation Dental Specialty Group [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]
