Dental Implant Placement
Portland, OR
 Dental implants are surgically placed posts. We embed them directly into your jawbone to anchor replacement teeth. This is a remarkable advancement in modern dentistry. Other replacement options do not offer the same stability or connection to the bone. At Portland City Dental, we recommend dental implants for the restoration of missing teeth because it is better for your oral health, your bone health and your overall chewing function. Your implant placement begins with a consultation where we can discuss a customized treatment plan that fits your needs.
Planning your Dental Implant Treatment
Much of your implant treatment is in the planning. We need to evaluate the need and discuss options that work for you. Dental implants come with options, including dental implant materials, how many implants are needed, and the prosthodontics that will be used. Additionally, we may need to help the patient gain control of gum disease, treat the bacterial infection, and assess to see if bone growth is needed.
Before most implant procedures, a bone graft is needed prior to treatment. We need sufficient bone tissue to sink the implant into. Your specific needs will be evaluated and discussed during the planning phase. Patients having a full arch bridge, known as the All on 4, generally do not require a bone graft before treatment.
Surgical Placement of a Dental Implant
With the preliminary work complete, and a treatment map in place, we can then place your dental implants. This is a minimally invasive procedure, meaning that minimal cuts are made, and this oral surgery is approved for many of our patients, even those who are more medically delicate. In general, your surgical placement includes:
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Being Comfortable: Our primary goal is the safety and wellbeing of our patients. We offer pain relief with a local anesthetic, we can also provide a conscious sedative as needed.
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Opening the Tissue: The surgical site was already mapped in your preliminary work using technology to help assess the best placement. Using this information, we open the tissue to reveal the bone. We then use a specialized dental drill to create a space in the bone.
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Insert the Implant: The implant is sunk into the space created in the bone. The implant is shaped with a threaded end that goes into the bone. The threads create an abundant amount of surface area, so that there is much greater contact with the bone.
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Sent Home for Healing: The healing time for your implant may confuse you, this is because the soft gum tissue should heal quickly, in just a few days. The real healing that we are looking for is in the bone tissue, this will take considerably more time. As the bone heals, it will grow up and around the threads of the implant fusing the two firmly together. This healing process is known as osseointegration, or bone integration. Once healed, your implant is firmly part of the bone material. |
For more information on dental implant placement, read our dental implant FAQs and contact our Portland office at (503) 256-7917.
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