MISSING ANTERIOR (FRONT) TOOTH
This patient had to have his central incisor removed due to an injury playing rugby which had severely traumatised the tooth. The tooth was initally replaced with a removable denture however, the patient did not find this comfortable and his confidence was affected by the fact that it was as natural in appearance as his exisitng teeth. Dentures do not provide a natural or fully functional tooth replacement and therefore, I was asked to replace this patient’s missing central incisor with a fixed solution. A dental implant was the ideal option we decided to use. I will talk you through the stages of the treatment following the initial dental implant surgery.
DENTAL IMPLANT PLACEMENT
A minor surgical procedure is carried out to carefully place the dental implant in the precise location required to fit the future tooth in the correct place. This procedure is normally carried out under local anaesthetic, it is painless.
Following the procedure, the patient experienced mild swelling around the upper lip which had subsided after 3 days.
GUM HEALING FOLLOWING SURGERY
Following the placement of the dental implant, the gum will have healed fully after around 10-12 weeks. At this stage you can see that the gum has a healthy pink appearance and the implant is positioned 3-5mm below the surface level of the gum. In order to ensure the gums are as stong and healthy aspossible, we provided this patient with a gum augmentation procedure at the same time as his implant surgery to develop the most natural and healthy gum contours round his dental implant. This is proven to be the most important factor when determining the long term success of dental implants.
A digital scan of the dental implant and the mouth are taken at this stage and sent to our laboratory technician, Stephen Green. Stephen is a highly skilled technician who has vast experience in creating natural looking teeth. This will provide him with all of the information required to accurately design and manufacture this patient’s tooth. The restorations are made using the latest digital technology and CAD/CAM milling to provide a tailor-made natural tooth replacement.
THE FINAL RESTORATION – A COMPLETE TOOTH
Finally, an E-max crown is inserted into the implant to give the appearance of a natural tooth. Each tooth is tailor made to ensure the shape, colour and symmetry matches the existing teeth in the patient’s mouth. The restoration is supported by the strong a fully integrated dental implant that was placed approximately 12 weeks prior to this stage. This titanium implant provides the most natural substitute to a natural tooth root.
We take particular care in preserving the patient’s natural gum contours. As can be seen in this image, the patient’s natural ‘pink’ gum line has provided a life-like seal around the replacement tooth. This is the same characteristics that are found around natural healthy teeth. If this gum line is not recreated then unsightly black triangles would be visible. The black triangles may also encourage food and plaque accumulation therefore, increasing the risk of future dental problems.
The final result is completely natural and it is difficult to tell which tooth is actually the ‘implant tooth‘. This patient was very pleased to have his tooth back!
