The different types of dental implants
The need for dental implants is very common, with millions of people in the UK benefitting from this treatment every year. Dental implants provide stability for replacement teeth and help maintain surrounding bone. This ultimately results the implant and the bone integrating together – a process called osseointegration. There are different types of teeth implants:
- Singular tooth implants – a single tooth implant is used to replace one missing tooth. A titanium screw is placed in the jawbone as a replacement for that tooth’s root. A false tooth crown is then fixed to this implant, retained by either bonding or preferably a screw-retained crown.
- Multiple dental implants – if there are multiple missing teeth adjacent to each other they can be replaced with more than one dental implant connected by a bridge, typically two implants and three to four teeth in one bridge.
- Implant-supported bridges – again, if there are multiple missing teeth, a dental implant-supported bridge contains multiple prosthetic teeth, attached to a bridge, creating an arch of teeth implants
- Implant-retained dentures – held in place by dental implants screwed into the jawbone, implant-retained dentures function better than normal dentures, as they are more stable, although there will still be an element of movement.
- Smile-in-a-day dental implants (also known as all-on-4, same day smile and full jaw dental implants) – as a long-lasting dental solution replacing loose, rotten and missing teeth (and for those already with un-fixed dentures), these dental implants are placed into the jaw, providing a full set of functioning teeth, in just one day