Friday, October 23, 2009

Phases of Houston Dental Implants

Surgical Phase
The surgical phase of Houston Dental Implant treatment involves placing an artificial tooth root into the jawbone itself. This base resembles a screw on the bottom and so gives the bone a structure around which to grow.

The immediate benefit of this is that it stops bone recession, which always begins after a tooth is lost and the root no longer has a root around which to grow.

The long term benefit of this is that bone recession eventually reverses itself and begins to engulf the dental implant--provided the treatment is performed in time. This process is called osseointegration and can take up to six months.

Post-Operative Phase
In order to give osseointegration and gum healing the best chance of success, there are immediate steps that the dentist has each patient take.

After the dentist places the dental implants, a surgical dressing will be applied to the area around the incision. Patients should keep this in place for as long as possible, and they should use cotton swabs to clean the areas around dental implants rather than brushing.

Salt water rinsing helps to prevent irritation of the gums, and should be performed twice a day for two weeks following the surgical phase. Antibiotics, if prescribed, should be taken as directed.

It is important that Houston dental implant patients maintain a high protein diet for the duration of the first part of the postoperative phase. Foods that are an excellent source of protein are eggs, soup, cottage cheese, milk products, and lean ground beef.

It is best, at least at first, to chop these foods in a blender. This is because a soft diet helps the incisions around the dental implant to heal. Houston dental implant patients should avoid hard foods.

If no infection occurs, the patient should still return in two weeks for suture removal and post-op evaluation. The dentist may place a temporary crown over the dental implant(s) at this time.

The remainder of the healing process can take six months.

Restorative Phase
After osseointegration has completed itself; the second phase of the dental implant process begins. If a temporary crown was placed, the dentist removes it and replaces it with an abutment. This is a special screw-like covering that goes over the implant.

The dentist will then cap the abutment with a porcelain crown. This creates an entirely new, artificial tooth that is very aesthetically appealing and amazingly strong.

Phase I and Phase II of implant dentistry are often performed by separate dentists, as one involves dental surgery, and the other phase involves cosmetic dentistry. Dr. Charles Campbell at the Houston Medical Center Dental Group is one of the few Houston dentists who will frequently perform both phases for his patients. He mentored under the best specialists in the world, and he has been working with titanium dental implants since the mid-1980s.

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