Benefits and Risks of Dental Implants?

Benefits of Dental Implants

Dental implants have both intrinsic and external benefits, and represent the closest way currently available to restore the mouth to its original condition after tooth loss. Dental implants also feel closer to having a natural tooth than is possible with any other restorative treatment available today.

Intrinsically, dental implants preserve the health and function of surrounding teeth and help avoid tooth migration and loss of structure that can result with tooth loss. Implants can also reduce the impact of the lost tooth on surrounding teeth, because traditional bridge structures often require filing down the adjacent teeth to hold the bridge in place with crowns.

As a replacement for or alternative to dentures, dental implants have even more benefits. Dentures notoriously slip and make embarrassing clicking sounds that unmistakably mark the wearer as having "false teeth." Poorly fitting dentures can even affect diet, restricting choices to foods that are easily chewed. Implants allow patients to eat food of almost all types, other than extremely hard foods such as ice, pits, or popcorn kernels.

Beyond these benefits, patients with dental implants report having an attractive, natural-looking smile that gives them increased self-esteem and confidence in social situations.

Possible Complications

As with any surgery, dental implants carry certain risks every patient should discuss thoroughly with their surgeon and understand completely before embarking on the long, arduous journey involved in choosing this treatment. Dental implants have a 90-95 percent success rate when the surgery is performed correctly and implants are placed properly.