Are you missing one or more of your natural teeth? If so, we can provide the assistance you need. Our team, led by Dr. Richard Ribeiro, has the experience, knowledge, and skill necessary to restore your oral health. Whether you’re missing one tooth or all of your teeth, we can provide you with a long-term, durable, and convenient solution that will allow you to reclaim your quality of life, regain your confidence, and enjoy a fully functional, beautiful smile once more. That solution is dental implants.
At Clarksville Smiles, we both place and restore dental implants so that we are able to meet our patients’ every need in-house. There is no need for patients to make the trek down to Nashville to have dental implants placed – at Clarksville Smiles, we provide world-class dental care for the benefit of people throughout the community.
Types of Dental Implants
There are different types and brands of implants, though all dental implants are fundamentally the same: implants are titanium screws that are inserted directly into the jawbone where they serve as artificial tooth roots for dental prosthetics such as crowns, bridges, and dentures. At our Clarksville practice, we utilize whatever implant is best suited to a patient’s individual needs:
Titanium Dental Implants
A traditional implant acts as an artificial tooth root, and is a tried and true solution for missing teeth. Dental implants can support a range of restorations and once in place are extremely durable. In fact, with proper maintenance, a dental implant can last you for the rest of your life. The placement procedure for traditional implants is similar to that used for other types of implants; a series of increasingly larger drills are utilized so that the gum and bone tissue can be modified gradually. Once a pilot hole of the appropriate size has been reached, the implant will be screwed directly into the jawbone, anchoring it in place. Atop this post, dental restorations such as crowns and bridges can be affixed.
The type of dental implant that is right for you will depend on a variety of factors. During your initial consultation with Dr. Ribeiro, he can advise you of your options after conducting a thorough evaluation of your dental health.
The Placement Procedure
To place a dental implant, we will first provide you with sedative to calm your nerves and put you at ease. You will remain calm and relaxed throughout your treatment and will have little to no memory of it afterwards. Local anesthesia will then be administered via our STA (single-treatment anesthesia) machine, which eliminates the use of a large syringe from the anesthesia process, and thus provides us with greater control and precision.
Once the patient is properly prepared for treatment, the gum tissue will be pulled away from the bone tissue, and a small pilot hole will be made in the jawbone. As alluded to above, once this pilot hole is the appropriate size, the titanium post will be screwed directly into the bone. Over time, the jawbone and implant will fuse together through a process known as osseointegration. During this phase of your recovery, your bone tissue will grow around the titanium post, in effect sealing it in place and allowing it to act as a natural tooth root.
Replacement Tooth
Once the implant has been placed, it must be topped with a replacement tooth or teeth in order to restore your ability to chew and speak properly. Our onsite lab will fabricate a custom restoration that is designed specifically for your mouth, resulting in greater comfort and better function. The type of restoration will vary based on the number of teeth being replaced. We invite you to call Clarksville Smiles in Clarksville, TN today to learn more about our dental implant services and to schedule your appointment with Dr. Ribeiro and his team. We look forward to helping you restore your smile!