Dental Implants Slidell
Restoring a Beautiful, Healthy, and Complete Smile
Is the loss of your teeth causing daily inconvenience? Are you avoiding words, foods, and even smiles due to missing teeth? If this sounds familiar, Dr. Steve has the ideal answer: dental implants in Slidell. Unlike mere aesthetic replacements, dental implants reconstruct teeth from the root, offering unparalleled appearance, strength, and durability. If you're determined to overcome tooth loss, reach out today to learn more about the unique advantages of dental implants.
Why Choose Camellia City Family Dentistry for Dental Implants?
- Partnered with Top-Level Local Specialists
- Beautiful, Durable, Natural-Looking Restorations
- Friendly & Empathetic Dental Team
What Are Dental Implants?
Dental implants restore both the visible crown and the missing root, resulting in a durable and natural-looking solution. Surgically placed in the jawbone, these implants fuse with the bone over time, providing stability and functionality similar to natural teeth. Whether for a single tooth, multiple teeth, or even a full arch, dental implants offer a long-lasting and reliable option for restoring your smile and oral function.
The 4-Step Dental Implant Process
The dental implant treatment process requires multiple appointments spaced out across the course of several months or longer. When you attend your consultation, we will work on designing your personalized treatment plan and answer all of your questions about the road ahead. You can be sure that you will receive top quality care during every phase of your journey. We even partner with local specialists for the dental implant surgery in order to minimize the risk of human error.
Continue reading below to get a deeper understanding of the four-part dental implant process.
Initial Dental Implant Consultation
During this initial appointment, Dr. Steve will learn about your oral health. We will take some X-rays, perform an oral examination, and ask about your goals for treatment. Depending on what we discover, we might determine that you need preliminary care before you move forward with dental implants. Or, if your mouth is already in good shape, we may refer you to a specialist for your implant placement surgery.
Do not hesitate to ask lots of questions during your consultation. We want you to feel confident and well-informed as you strive to achieve improved oral health and a complete smile.
Dental Implant Surgery
We work with local specialists for the dental implant surgery. They have advanced training and equipment that reduces the risk of human error and gives your new smile the best possible chance of success.
The surgery itself is fairly straightforward. Your mouth will be numb, and you may be sedated as well. Your surgeon will create incisions in your gums, carefully insert the implants at their pre-planned locations, and then close the incisions. Then, you will be sent home to start your recovery process. Most patients can go back to work within a day or two of their procedure.
Dental Implant Osseointegration & Abutment Placement
After the dental implants are placed in your jaw, a remarkable biological process known as osseointegration will begin. Essentially, osseointegration is what occurs when your jawbone bonds with the dental implants. The strong bond that forms between them allows your implants to act as sturdy prosthetic tooth roots.
Osseointegration usually takes a few months. Afterward, you might need to undergo a second surgery, wherein your implants will be exposed and healing caps will be placed on them. Later, the healing caps will be replaced by abutments (small connector pieces that will keep your new teeth in place).
Delivery of Dental Implant Restorations
When your implants are ready to support your new teeth, you will return to our office. We will take impressions of your mouth and design your beautiful new crown, bridge, or denture. After a laboratory fabricates your restoration, we will inspect it to make sure that it meets our rigorous quality standards. Then, we will attach it to your implants. You will be able to start enjoying the benefits of your new smile right away! You can call us for guidance at any time as you are adapting to your restored teeth.
Benefits of Dental Implants
Are you thinking about getting dental implants in Slidell? If so, you might find it helpful to learn some benefits that come with this state-of-the-art tooth-replacement solution. Fortunately, this next section is dedicated to just that!
Day-to-Day Benefits
If you rebuild your smile with dental implants, then you’ll enjoy the following day-to-day benefits:
- Enhanced Aesthetics – In addition to filling the gaps in your smile, dental implants prevent early cheek sagging. As a result, you’ll enjoy a much more youthful appearance!
- Improved Bite Strength – Dental implants grant you nearly the same chewing capability as real teeth, allowing you to enjoy your favorite foods without limitations.
- Clearer Communication – Following tooth loss, it can be difficult to enunciate clearly. Fortunately, dental implants can fill the gaps in your smile, so it’s easier to communicate.
Health Benefits
Additionally, dental implants can have a positive impact on your oral and overall health by:
- Preserving Your Jawbone – Since dental implants are inserted into your jawbone, it gets stimulated when you chew. This, in turn, prevents bone loss that often follows natural tooth loss.
- Preventing Dental Drift – It won’t take long for the teeth surrounding the gaps in your smile to drift into the open space. Unfortunately, this can lead to premature wear, chronic jaw pain, and several other issues. That’s why it’s important to explore your tooth-replacement options, like dental implants, sooner rather than later.
- Improving Your Nutrition – When you’re stuck eating only soft foods, it’s difficult to get all of the vitamins and nutrients that you need. Fortunately, dental implants can restore the strength of your bite, which makes it easier to eat healthy, well-balanced meals.
Long-Term Benefits
There are also several long-term benefits that come with dental implants in Slidell, including:
- Easy Maintenance – With dental implants, you don’t have to worry about getting them relined or buying special cleaning products. Instead, just use the same best practices you use to care for your natural teeth, like scheduling a dental cleaning twice a year.
- A High Success Rate – Dental implants have an impressive success rate of 95%. It’s actually a bit higher for patients who don’t smoke, which is why we recommend steering clear of tobacco products entirely.
- Longevity – On average, dental implants last for over 25 years. However, some can remain functional for an entire lifetime! That’s why it’s important to consider more than just the upfront price. Since they are long-lasting, they often end up being the most cost-effective option in the long run.
Who Dental Implants Can Help
Dental implants are a versatile solution, whether you're missing just one tooth or multiple. To be a candidate, your mouth must be free of gum disease, your body must be healthy enough for surgery, and your jaw should be strong enough to support the posts. Once qualified, we'll choose an implant type based on the extent of tooth loss.
Missing Single Tooth
A single dental implant post is all it takes to replace a missing tooth. After complete healing around the implant, a crown can be positioned atop it, like how we’d restore a natural tooth. Using tooth-colored materials, we craft the crown to seamlessly blend with surrounding teeth, ensuring your smile appears entirely natural following the treatment.
Missing Multiple Teeth
When multiple teeth are lost within one arch, we offer a solution to replace them collectively using a minimal implant count. For instance, as few as two dental implants and a personalized dental bridge can replace three or more consecutive teeth. Gaps in multiple areas can be effectively addressed with a partial denture and the appropriate number of implant posts.
Missing All Teeth
When all teeth in a single arch are lost, they can be comprehensively replaced with a full denture. A mere four to six implants usually suffice to provide ample support. Unlike traditional dentures, implant dentures offer the flexibility of being either removable or fixed based on your preference.
Understanding the Cost of Dental Implants
The dental implant process can look very different for each patient depending on their specific needs. As such, the cost of dental implants in Slidell can vary significantly from case to case. When it comes to the financial aspect of rebuilding your smile, you can count on our team to make sure you have all of the information you need to make the decision that’s right for you. Below is a closer look at some of the factors that you should be aware of.
Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery
Sometimes bone grafting, gum disease treatment, or another type of preliminary procedure will be necessary to prepare your mouth for dental implants. These treatments all carry their own price tags, which we will make sure you’re aware of before you need to make any commitments.
The cost of the actual dental implant surgery isn’t set in stone. It can be influenced by several factors, such as the location of the surgical site. The specialist responsible for placing your dental implants can give you more details regarding the cost of the procedure.
The Parts of Your Dental Implant
The amount you end up paying for dental implants depends on multiple variables, including:
- The Number of Implant Posts: Do you just need a single implant post to fill in a solitary gap in your smile? Or will multiple posts need to be placed in order to rebuild an entire arch of teeth? The more posts required to correct your specific tooth loss situation, the more you can expect to pay.
- The Type of Prosthesis: Dental implants can be used to support crowns, bridges, and dentures. Each type of prosthesis comes with a different price tag.
- The Brand Used: There are different kinds of dental implants available. The brand chosen to meet your specific needs will have an impact on the overall cost.
Why Dental Implants Can Be an Excellent Investment
Dental implants typically have a higher initial price than more traditional forms of tooth replacement. However, they also offer many unique benefits that can make them well worth the higher cost. Furthermore, dental implants are often a smart investment because they can last for decades with the right care, meaning you are less likely to need to have them replaced.
Does My Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?
Some dental insurance plans do not offer coverage for dental implants because they are classified as an elective procedure. However, they often still help pay for certain aspects of the dental implant process, such as the final prosthesis. It may be a good idea to reach out to your insurance company to make sure that you fully understand your benefits and how you might be able to use them to manage the cost of getting dental implants.
Making Dental Implants Affordable
There’s more than one way to make the dental implant process more budget-friendly. For example, you can sign up for our in-house dental plan, which offers discounts on major dental work. Alternatively, our team can help you apply for CareCredit financing or a Cherry payment plan. Both of these options let you break up the cost for your care into smaller installments, which is often easier to handle than trying to pay the full price all at once.
Dental Implant FAQs
Dental implants are one of the most oft-discussed methods of replacing teeth, and if you’ve spent any time at all researching them, you’ve probably heard a lot about what they can do. In fact, you may even have gotten some conflicting information about them.
If you want to make sense of what you’ve heard, you may have questions about what dental implants are capable of. Here are answers to some of the most common ones that we get.
How Long Do Dental Implants Last?
Studies have shown that around 95% of dental implants are successful at 20 years, and a vast majority of them last for over 30. If you care for them well, dental implants may even last a lifetime!
How long you can keep your dental implants around depends on a few factors, primarily how well you keep up with your dental hygiene. Be sure to brush, floss, and use mouthwash every day, and see us twice a year for checkups.
Does Getting Dental Implants Hurt?
As with just about any dental procedure, your mouth will be numbed completely before beginning the surgery. As a result, the actual process of having the dental implants placed will be entirely painless. This is aided by the fact that the jawbone naturally doesn’t have very many nerve endings.
After the treatment, the area around your dental implant is likely to be a little bit tender. Be sure to take any medication you were prescribed as directed, or take over-the-counter pain relievers according to the instructions on the bottle. Cold compresses can also be helpful in bringing down swelling.
Can I Get Dental Implants If I Smoke?
It is possible for smokers to get dental implants, but they have a considerably higher chance of implant failure than other patients. This is because smoking, vaping, and other methods of ingesting nicotine often cause dry mouth and damage gum tissue. This makes healing after surgery incredibly difficult.
For that reason, we strongly recommend quitting nicotine for at least two weeks before and ninety days after your surgery. This is the best way to make sure that you can heal effectively, and we’ll be happy to help you if you’ve had trouble quitting in the past.
Will People Be Able to Tell That I Have Dental Implants?
In designing your dental implants, we will take detailed impressions of your tooth to make your restoration as realistic as possible. This restoration will be attached directly to the jaw, just like your regular teeth are.
For those reasons, dental implants are startlingly realistic, so much so that most people will not be able to tell that you have implants unless you tell them.
