Unfortunately, sometimes people lose their front teeth. Fortunately, we can fix that!
While there are several different ways to replace a missing tooth, we often recommend dental implants
as the restoration of choice. This blog will take you through the implant placement and restoration
process that we take to replace that missing front tooth.
Step One: Implant Placement
Proper placement of the implant is critical to the success and appearance of the implant. A dental
implant is surgically placed in a position so that we can be sure the final restoration looks completely
natural. In order to accomplish this, we work with board-certified surgeons to plan and carry out the
process. The implant placement begins the process and allows for ideal aesthetics, bone and tissue
support, and bite.The surgeon will then monitor the implant and evaluate when it is stable and integrated. Once this
happens, the specialists will indicate to Dr. Dow or Dr. Fisher that the implant is ready for its restoration.
Step Two: Provisional (Temporary) Implant Crown
In order to create beautiful, natural-looking crowns, the doctors will have to train the gum tissue. This
means using a provisional crown to push on the gum tissue and tell it where it needs to go. This step is
so important, and is often skipped.
Implants are round, but teeth are almost always not. If the tissue shaping did not occur you’d have a
tooth that looks too narrow or circular by the gums, giving away that the tooth is not your own. Taking
the extra time to shape the tissue avoids this issue. It’s like preparing the ground around construction:
skipping this could lead to flooding or weakening, and it’s the same in implants. In some instances, the
provisional can be placed the same day as the surgery. In others, it will need to wait until after the
implant integrates. For those situations, other provisional restorations can be made.
Step Three: Definitive Crown
Once the implant is ready and the tissue has been trained, we can move forward with the records for
the definitive restoration. The records could be a traditional impression or a digital scan. These tell the
lab where the implant is located so that an accurate and aesthetic implant crown can be made.
Once made, the lab returns an abutment (the part that goes into the implant) and the crown (the part
that looks like a tooth) and we try them in to make sure the color, shape, and appearance is satisfactory.
Seen here is a case in which the above steps were performed. Initially, the missing tooth site has flat,
untrained gum tissue.
After taking the time to shape the gums, the definitive restoration can be made to appear as if it has always been there, just like a natural tooth. If you’re in need of an implant in your front teeth, give us a call to see if we can help get the smile you deserve.