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Restoration


Once dental implants are placed in the proper positions, they are usually left alone for 3-6 months to allow bone to heal tightly around them.  As dental implants are titanium or titanium alloy screws that work like the root of human teeth, the crown part needs to be made and connected to the top of the dental implants.  Due to the varieties of dental implant designs and their advantages and disadvantages and the quality of bone, the restoration timing varies from 0 months to 6 or 9 months.

Some implant designs and the manner they are positioned, restorations (crowns or sometimes dentures) can be placed on top of the dental implants on the same the dental implants are placed.  However, with different dental implant designs and poor quality bone dictate that restorations be placed 3-6 months later or sometimes 9 months later.

There are several types of restorations that can be placed on dental implants.

  • Crown: When there is a single tooth missing, a dental implant is placed and a single crown is placed on top of the implant.  In this case, the dental implant works just like the root of a tooth.
  • Bridge: When there are several teeth missing, dental implants can be placed but not for each missing tooth.  For example, if three teeth are missing, two dental implants can be placed (usually at the terminal positions of the missing area) and those two dental implants can be used as the abutments for a bridge.  It is much like replacing a missing tooth with a conventional bridge, but with dental implants, the natural adjacent teeth are not ground down.
  • Overdenture: Conventional full dentures are uncomfortable, especially the lower one.  Dental implants are placed at 2 to 4 strategic areas and are used as anchors for the dentures.
  • Hybrid Restoration: The restoration of this type replaces the entire arch, either upper or lower, of teeth.  It is usually a long bridge in one piece and has pink porcelain baked onto the bridge to mimic the lost gum tissue.

Please read more about dental implant restoration from the topics listed below.

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