Dental Implants

Dental implants is, has been a revolution. I mean, it's the single best way to replace a missing tooth. You place an implant body. Then, on top of that goes an implant abutment. And then on top of that goes the crown, which could be cemented or screwed in. You can make them look very, very close to original teeth. Now, nothing's as good as the original equipment. However, dental implants are great. Process for getting a dental implant is, you have to place the implant body. And then, you have to allow the bone to heal around that. Anywhere from a month to three months, to allow the bone to integrate around the titanium implant. And then, you can put a tooth on top of it. I did a 12 month internship where I did a lot of didactic place implants. I got interested in it. One of the implant companies asked me to teach a class. And so I did that. I've done that for several years. And I've taught a couple of mentorship programs where, if local dentists have questions about dental implants, I can help them with specific cases. Because bone has no nerves, once you place the implant, patients do not complain that it's very sore with proper management. And we do blood draws and platelet-rich plasma technique, which decreases patient pain, decreases patient swelling, and improves the healing around the area. So a typical single-tooth implant, the procedure is anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. And the patient comes in after a week for a post-op, and they just don't complain of a lot of pain. Usually all they need is Advil following the appointment. Dental implants last a long time, as long as they're properly placed.