Everything You Need To Know About Caring For Dental Implants

Dental implant services are gaining in popularity across Perth, but it’s important to know how to prepare your mouth for them and how to care for them afterwards.

What are Dental Implants?

Dental implants are metal posts that are surgically positioned into the jawbone beneath your gums if your natural tooth has been extracted or is missing. Once these are safely in place, your dentist can use them to act as anchors for replacement teeth to restore the functionality and appearance of your smile.

Dental implants provide stable support for the new replacement teeth, because they fuse to the bone and act similarly to natural teeth. If you have dentures or bridges mounted to implants then you get peace of mind knowing that they won't move in your mouth or slip out suddenly, which could be a problem for some people when eating or speaking. This means that your replacement tooth will feel more natural than other bridges or dentures, and often are much more comfortable too.

How To Prepare For Dental Implants:

By maintaining a good standard of oral hygiene, your mouth will be a much more stable environment for your new dental implant. Your personal circumstances will help your dentist identify which choice of anaesthetic will work best for you, and this will affect what you may be able to eat and drink leading up to your procedure. You will be able to learn more about this from your dentist during the initial consultations or appointments before your dental implants treatment.

There are some circumstances where a dental implant may not be right for you. The implant requires enough bone to support the new tooth, but tooth loss can lead to the loss of bone in the jaw over time. To go ahead with the dental implants, your dentist would need for you to receive a bone graft. This may be your own bone, or the bone from a cadaver or a cow, among other options available.

How To Care For Dental Implants:

If you already maintain a good level of oral health then you shouldn’t have much to worry about - dental implants require much the same care of natural teeth. Cleaning is especially important after meals, and this can be easily accomplished by gently brushing with special attention paid to all sides of the implant.

Oral hygiene aids may include:

Small, soft, manual toothbrush or an electric brush
Dental floss

Low-abrasive, tartar-control toothpaste

If you wish to know more about dental implants or you would like to see if they’re the right choice for you, arrange a consultation with your dentist. Your dentist can assess your unique situation and determine what the best course of treatment would be, and can explain to you all of your other possible choices to make sure that you’re making an educated decision. Dental implants are a great solution for many people across Perth, and most dental clinics are able to offer them to their patients among a range of dental and oral services.

Dental Implants: A Brief History

Dentistry has come a long way from the infected tooth cleaned with flint tools around 14,000 years ago - fortunately for many of us. In fact, it’s pretty incredible to see how much technology has influenced and driven our dental care, dental implants included.

Dental implants are a common procedure now in Perth, but their history is surprisingly fascinating. Whether it’s for your personal knowledge at the next Trivia night or you want to know more about how dentists arrived at today’s procedure, read on below to find out the history of dental implants.

2500 BCE

Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians of North Africa used gold wire to develop ligatures, which kept the teeth stable, and remains have been found of an Egyptian king with a copper tooth connected to his upper jaw. The evidence of this have been found in mummies, and was seemingly replicated thousands of years later by the Phoenicians who used similar ligatures to splint their teeth. At a similar time to the Phoenicians, the Etruscans were pulling damaged teeth and replacing them with oxen bones.  

2300 BC

Although this was probably a cosmetic posthumous procedure, we thought we’d still include it. An iron false tooth over 2300 years old was found in a Celtic grave in France. Due to the procedure involved where the iron tooth was hammered (yes, hammered) into the jawbone, experts say that this was probably done for appearance reasons after death.

2000 BC

Bamboo, whittled down and carved into pegs, has been found among Chinese remains from 4000 years ago, where they were used as makeshift dental implants.

AD

Around 2000 years ago, it was common to use teeth from animals, slaves, and poor people as replacement teeth, although they were highly susceptible to infection and would usually be rejected from the host. However, by the 7th century, humans had been utilising many different materials to develop implants - a particularly fascinating find was uncovered in Mayan ruins in Honduras. The human jaw contained three shells, carved into the likeness of teeth and implanted into the lower jaw. This find caught particular attention, as the bone surrounding the shell was showing signs of regeneration and acceptance of the new tooth! This bone fusion was a huge achievement, making this procedure incredibly successful for its time.

Modern Times:

After a hit-and-miss era of various metals and alloys, a 1950’s surgeon discovered that bone regeneration could integrate titanium successfully, and in 1965 he implanted his first titanium dental implant into a live human volunteer.

Dental implants are now an incredibly safe, comfortable, and affordable procedure. With the cost and risk reduced, dentists today have very little need for iron teeth and hammers. If you want to know more about what to expect from dental implants today and whether they’re right for you, talk to our friendly team to organise an appointment or consultation.