Like it’s always been there

When we provide replacement teeth using dental implants our objective is to make the replacement tooth look like it has always been there.

The truest test of anything mimicking a natural tooth is whether it can be detected as being ‘not natural’.

We completed this treatment for our patient last week and it demonstrates a great example of this. The patient presented to our clinic requiring a single tooth to be replaced. She had recently had her UR4 premolar tooth removed due to dental pathology that was untreatable. The rest of her teeth were healthy.

Simply replacing one tooth in an otherwise healthy mouth sounds like a simple task, doesn’t it? In fact, this is a challenging case to ensure the replacement tooth fits perfectly within her exisiting smile. Any imperfection would stand out therefore, this single tooth needs to be carefully designed and planned.

I have written many blogs and the importance of gum shaping and in this case that is what makes all the difference. We carefully sculpted the gum to be shaped similarly to the adjacent natural teeth. This enables us to design a tooth with the same anatomical shapes as her natural teeth. All of this meant that we were able to provide a dental implant tooth that was permanently fixed and looked as natural as her own teeth, in every way possible.

When I gave the patient a mirror to have a look, she commented by asking ‘which tooth is it?’. For me, that is the best feedback I can expect and I am thrilled that we are able to provide so many patients with this treatment so that they can continue to smile and function as if they had always had their teeth!

Thank you for reading,

Mohsin Patel