If you have a friend or family member who is missing a tooth, you may have heard about dental implants. At Wisconsin Smiles in West Allis, we love dental implants! We regularly use dental implants to help patients who need both cosmetic and restorative dental work done.
Dental implants are an excellent solution for replacing missing teeth. Dental implants can offer comfort and stability to a jaw, and the artificial replacement tooth looks beautiful and functions naturally. Best of all, dental implants curb bone loss and can last a lifetime. At our West Allis dental office, Dr. Monteagudo recommends dental implants to replace missing teeth and protect your oral health for the long-term.
We have prepared this informational web page to help you learn more general information about our dental implants in West Allis. We understand that you may have additional questions after reading through this information, and we encourage you to contact our dental team with these questions! Please call us at Wisconsin Smiles during our regular business hours by dialing (414) 383-5833.
The Problem with Missing TeethYou may not think that a single missing tooth is a huge problem when compared to your entire mouth, but even one missing tooth can dramatically impact your overall oral health.
Just one space left by a missing tooth allows other teeth to shift, which creates problems with your dental bite. Additionally, when you do not replace a lost tooth, the jaw that once supported the tooth lacks a purpose and begins to atrophy. This process affects the teeth adjacent to the lost tooth. The bone tissue resorbs, creates a weakened jaw, and limits options for tooth replacement in the future.
The problem with missing teeth is that tooth loss starts a chain reaction that eventually affects your whole smile. Surrounding teeth can begin to move into the space left by the missing tooth, which will ultimately lead to crowding and misalignment. In turn, this movement may make proper oral hygiene difficult, possibly resulting in decay and gum disease. Worst of all, you can lose up to 20 percent of adjacent teeth in the next 4–8 years.
Unfortunately, a missing tooth doesn’t just impact neighboring teeth. All your teeth are designed to do a specific job. For example, the function of your upper and lower incisors is to cut food with sharp, thin edges. Canine teeth are strong and stable and are ideal for holding or grasping food, while molars quickly and effectively grind food. When just one tooth is missing, all remaining teeth withstand greater force as they take on the jobs meant for the missing teeth.
Losing a tooth is like removing a domino or Jenga block during a game—the structure may hold for a time, but the stability of the surrounding pieces is compromised.
Even though losing a tooth initially puts your mouth at risk, the news isn’t all bad. Today, you have more options than ever before to replace a missing tooth. Dental implants are a natural-looking alternative to dental bridges and dentures that provide much-needed support under the jaw’s surface.
Implant posts give the jaw a purpose, keep it active, and allow you to retain healthy bone mass.
The main component of a dental implant is a small titanium post that our Milwaukee dentists surgically place into the jawbone. Medical doctors regularly use titanium in joint replacement procedures because it is biocompatible.
The term “biocompatible” means that your body readily accepts the material and the titanium will gradually become a part of your jawbone in a process called osseointegration. Osseointegration of dental implants creates the most stable and durable tooth replacement option available today.
After we place your dental implant post, the area needs to heal for several months. As soon as the site has healed, the healthy dental implant will function well with help from a dental crown, dental bridge, or denture. If you receive a traditional dental implant, our dental team will complete the treatment by adding a metal abutment and a porcelain or ceramic tooth crown to the top of your implant post.
While dental implants may seem like a recent innovation, they have been around for many decades with great success and many functional benefits. Some of the best advantages of dental implants include:
Improved Stability: Dental implants acts as an “anchor” or artificial tooth root that stabilizes and supports your jaw. Other tooth replacement options, such as dentures and bridges, only replace the tooth’s crown portion and fail to address the missing root. Dental implants provide a solution that returns 100 percent of a tooth’s missing components.
Versatility: With dental implants, we can replace a single tooth, several missing teeth, or even an entire set of upper and lower teeth. Dental implants can also support a dental bridge or retain a full or partial denture. One of the best advantages of dental implants is their versatility and our ability to customize the number of dental implants to fit your treatment plan.
Restoring Function: Your natural teeth withstand a lot of wear and tear each day. You rely on your teeth to chew your food comfortably and to help you speak properly. Dental implants help restore these functions when they otherwise might be lost.
Easy Maintenance: It is easy to care for dental implants. You need to brush and floss as you usually would, and continue to visit our West Allis dentists several times each year for your routine cleanings and exams. Dental implants are permanent and fixed, which means you won’t have to remove them for soaking, cleaning, or applying adhesives.
Appearance: We make dental implant restorations from tooth-colored materials. The dental implants then fill out the facial profile, preventing the “sunken” look that sometimes develops when people have lost teeth. The look of your smile will only improve when you add dental implants!
Dependability: Since we use medical-grade titanium in our surgical process, implants can serve you well throughout your lifetime. With proper dental care, your titanium dental implant post should last forever, and your porcelain dental crown that rests on top should last over a decade.
Dr. Monteagudo’s Treatment GuaranteeDental implants are historically 95–98 percent successful, but if you’re still leery, you can take comfort in our lifetime treatment guarantee. We use the most updated and advanced treatment methods, and, when coupled with our guarantee, you can have full confidence in your dental implant treatment.
Dr. Monteagudo will discuss the specific guidelines of our dental implant treatment guarantee at your initial dental appointment.
Now that you know a little more about dental implants and why they make such an excellent treatment choice, it is time to schedule your dental implant appointment with our West Allis dentist.
If you’re suffering from missing teeth, call our clinical team today at (414) 383-5833. Our convenient dental office location is easily accessible to patients in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Wauwatosa, and Elm Grove. We look forward to working with you and helping you take your smile to the next level!
It seems inevitable that, at some point as you get older, you stand a good chance of needing dentures. However, the reality is that advances in dental technology, materials, and treatment are allowing patients to keep their teeth longer and longer – sometimes throughout their lives.
But what happens when someone, such as yourself, has either already lost some or all of their teeth or think they are about to? Updated technology to the rescue - dental implants could be the answer you’re looking for to avoid having to wear dentures. With dental implants, Dr. Monteagudo can replace just one tooth, several teeth in a section of your jaw, or an entire arch of teeth.
It may be the case that you’re just one of those people who are more prone to tooth decay or periodontal disease and more apt to lose teeth than others. Having a family history of denture use simply means that you need to be very proactive about taking the steps to keep your teeth healthy and intact for as long as possible. With proper care and conscientious dental visits, you may never need dentures. However, in the event that you do lose one or more teeth, implants may be a good option to prevent the need for dentures.
A common complaint among denture wearers is the mess and inconvenience of always having to apply adhesives to secure their dentures in place, especially when speaking, laughing, or eating a meal. What a nuisance – you’re enjoying dinner at a nice restaurant with friends, and suddenly you have to excuse yourself from the table to go to the rest room because your dentures won't stay in. Not the way you wanted your evening to go!
Laughing, coughing, and laughing can also be troublesome for people who rely on adhesives to hold their teeth in place. You may find it funny to see another person’s denture fall out, but we can assure you it’s not funny when it’s you who has to deal with these embarrassing situations on a daily basis. Denture wearers with problems such as these are not alone. Nearly 30 million people in the US are without teeth and approximately 29% of those in this group are limited to chewing only soft foods.
If loose or ill-fitting dentures are preventing you from enjoying life, the addition of dental implants is something you should consider. We can use dental implants to fasten onto your dentures to hold them in place. Of course, you also have the option of doing away with dentures altogether and just going with dental implants.
Absolutely! This is an unfortunate situation that many of our patients who wear dentures experience on a daily basis.
In dentistry, it’s a well-established fact that a full lower denture is the most unstable dental prosthetic fabricated in any dental practice. This is because when you chew, the average lower denture is five times more likely to move than the upper.
If you’re suffering with advanced bone loss, you may also face additional problems like difficulty with your speech, poor muscle coordination, and the inability to keep the denture in place. All of these will have an adverse effect on enjoying a normal lifestyle.
Fortunately, dental implants offered at WisconsinSmiles can be a great solution for rectifying all these problems. Even if you’ve experienced significant bone loss, there’s still a good chance that we can do something to help. In most cases, a thorough evaluation and panoramic x-ray is all that’s required to decide if you are a good candidate for implants. We’ll take the time to talk to you about the problem that’s bothering you the most and work together until it’s resolved to your satisfaction.
Give us a call today to arrange an appointment!
You’ll be happy to know that you do not need an implant for every tooth we’re replacing. How many implants are necessary to provide support depends on the type of implants we choose to use and the type of denture (removable or non-removable) will be attached to the implants.
In your case, if we find that you are a good candidate for endosseous (in-the-bone) implants, we may need to use anywhere between two and eight implants. The number we decide to use really depends on the technique we use to support a full set of lower teeth. In most cases, a thorough evaluation, including panoramic x-rays, is all that’s required to help us understand the best approach.
During this exam, Dr. Monteagudo will work with you to recommend which implant would be most appropriate and how many we need to use to stabilize the denture. In more complicated cases, we may need additional x-rays or CT scans to get a full picture of your needs.
Certainly, the best place to start is to give us a call! We’ll be happy to arrange a convenient consultation so Dr. Monteagudo can perform a dental implant evaluation, answer your questions, and make suggestions.
Dr. Monteagudo will be more than happy to talk to you about the possibility of replacing an entire arch of missing teeth with non-removable teeth (dentures) held securely in place with dental implants. In fact, the ability to be comfortable in social situations and eat properly was the primary motivation behind the development of dental implants.
Of course, our ultimate goal is to eliminate the need for dentures as we now know them. The addition of dental implants will provide you with stable teeth, and, for many people, they’ll enjoy this stability for the first time in years. However, everyone is unique and presents a different combination of factors that we need to take into consideration to determine which type of implant will be best suited for them.
Another option is removable dentures that can be held in place and supported by several implants that are connected by a bar. We can also talk to you about the possibility of replacing the missing teeth with fixed or removable bridges that are anchored to five to eight implants. Dental implants are a viable and functional way to help improve your quality of life and health.
Please give us a call to arrange a dental implant consultation with Dr. Monteagudo.
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