Immediate Loading for Dental Implants

For more than 20-30 years, dental implants have been a ray of hope for a lot of people that have had lost or bad teeth. Traditional dental implants involve placing the implants and providing the tooth restorations after 3 to 6 months. This period is necessary since the gums and bones need those time for their healing before permanent teeth will be attached.

This situation, however, may make the patients who have no teeth or temporary crowns uncomfortable and lose some of their beauty. Lots of patients feel it tedious and intimidating, so they finally decide not to take the idea of dental implants and cope with the hassles of bad teeth.

Immediate loading for dental implants brought a beacon of hope to these patients. This procedure, gaining in popularity as much as dental implants, involves placing implants in the patients and performing tooth restorations either on the same day or within 1 day or 2 days. With this surprising method, the treatment is accelerated and the patient does not have to sport a goofy look without some of the teeth.

Same day implants are not complicated procedures but they involve fulfilling certain criteria. Some amount of bone is required and the placed implant has to be in a fixed position to resist a minimum of 40 ncm of force. The dentist has to adjust the temporary crown in a manner to avoid any kinds of forces on it during function. Fulfilling these criteria helps the bone to develop around the implant.

A crucial success factor in immediate load implants is removing the tooth effectively but without removing any bone in the process. A thin instrument called a periotome, is employed to separate the root from the bone. The socket for the implants will be prepared with sequentially sized bone drills designed for perfect placement of the implant. The implant is placed and tested for fragility by applying suitable force with the help of a torque wrench.

This is followed by an immediate abutment and temporary crown. In the former step, the dentists have to make sure that the implant size and the bone surrounding the area provide enough anchorage. X-ray is usually taken to achieve the successful implant. The entire process takes about 15 to 20 minutes for one tooth and in 30 days patients can have their permanent crown fixed.

Immediate loading for dental implants are considered as a better option compared with delayed implants. For example, the tissues and gums surrounding the tooth can shrink in delayed placement. This is a complication as too much shrinking can cause the gums to recede to such an extent that it creates an unnatural looking gum line when the dentist tries to place a tooth. Immediate loading for dental implants do not have these kinds of complications.

The costs for this procedure can vary depending on the number of implants claimed by the patient. Immediate loading for dental implants, at least for the time being, are commonly very expensive in the United States.

If patients feel this cost expensive and beyond reach then countries like Costa Rica, Mexico, India and Thailand offer a ray of hope. The costs in these countries for immediate loading may be reduced by 50-60%.