How techniques are evolving

 Up until 15 yrs ago dental implants were available but not a routine treatment option. Over the recent years however they are becoming a more popular option for replacing missing teeth.

Last week I placed an immediate implant to replace an upper central incisor (Front tooth). The tooth needed extracting as a result of failing root canal treatment.  After careful planning our decision was to carefully extract the tooth and place the implant on the same day. By doing this we hope to maintain the gum levels as they are to provide us with a natural aesthetic final result.

Careful extraction of the tooth using an atraumatic technique allows for bone preservation, allowing an implant to be fixed directly into the extraction site. If we waited for bone healing (6-8 weeks) in this case, the risk would have been shrinkage of the gum resulting in a considerably longer implant tooth compared to the neighbouring natural tooth. By using this relatively new and advanced technique the gum shrinkage can be kept to a minimum’