Are Dental Implants Right for You? 

If you’re less than happy with the appearance of your smile, dental implants could be the solution. Dental implants are a type of restorative dentistry that replaces missing or extracted teeth. They look completely natural, and they function just like natural teeth, too. If you’re interested in learning more about the many benefits of dental implants, your dentist in Long Beach, CA, can help.

What Are Dental Implants?

Dental implants are prosthetic teeth that have been specially designed to fit your mouth and to match the shades of your surrounding teeth. Essentially, they’re substitutes for teeth that have been lost or extracted. And they not only help you bite and chew as you normally would, but they prevent bone loss, too.

How Are Dental Implants Performed?

To place a dental implant, your dental professional will implant a metal post, usually titanium, into the socket where the missing tooth used to be. After several weeks, this post will osseointegrate into the bone beneath your teeth. At this point, it’s ready to receive an abutment. The abutment acts as a connector between the implanted post and the prosthetic tooth, or crown. Last, your dentist will fit the crown over the abutment, and you’ll have a new tooth where no tooth was before.

It typically takes several months and multiple visits to your dentist before the procedure can be called complete, but the wait is well worth it. Once your implant is in, no one will ever know it’s not your natural tooth. You’ll be able to bite and chew normally, and you won’t have to worry about the damage caused by bone loss.

What Are the Benefits of Dental Implants?

Dental implants have many benefits, including:

• They improve the appearance of your smile.
• They may improve the way you speak.
• They make it easier to bite and chew your food.
• They prevent bone loss.
• They help prevent more serious dental issues, such as malocclusion.

Dental implants are also permanent, which means you don’t have to take them in and out for sleeping or cleaning. Once they’re in, you simply care for them as you would your natural teeth.

Call Dr. Andy Tang, DDS, for more information regarding dental implants in Long Beach, CA.