Introduction to Implant Dentistry
Implant Dentistry has been evolving dramatically over the last few years. Never before have dental implants been as successful, well-designed and effective, allowing practices to produce a broad range of services that benefit patients. The number of implants being placed increases on an annual basis although many practices have not yet adopted implnats in the numbers that would be beneficial to many of their patients.

In the next few years, there will be a significant explosion of implant dentistry in dental practices. Not only has the sophisticated design of dental implants reached all-time excellence, but patients are becoming more sophisticated than ever before. Dental implants represent one of the highest levels of quality care we can provide to patients. They literally enhance the quality of life to such a high degree that most patients with dental implants claim that they would never again go without them.

Dental implants do present challenges. Many dentists become educated through one-and two-day courses that were not sufficiently comprehensive in nature to allow them to handle a broad range of cases. As an oral surgeon, Dr. Pollock has five years of advanced education after dental school. He educates dentists with local courses and averages more than 100 hours of continuing educational courses annually. Many dentists also experience difficulty and challenges early in implant trials in their practices and opt to either restore very few dental implant cases or none at all. This is unfortunate as retoring dental implants is now easier than ever before and is adding tremendous productivity to many dental practices.

Dental Implants and the quality of care
The truth is that dental implants can offer so many patients a quality of care that cannot be achieved with other services. The denture wearer who has experienced slipping, soreness, discomfort, multiple visits to the dental practice, etc., is a tremendous beneficiary of dental implants. These patients often find their entire lives changed once they have implant-retained dentures which gave them comfort, confidence and stability that has never been achieved with dentures.

This is also true for patients who have partial dentures and experience the inconvenience of having food caught in them, cleaning them, and having them routinely adjusted and repaired. Many patients eventually come to the long-term realization that partial dentures often destabilize the surrounding teeth and act as the anchors to the partial denture. Unfortunately, it is often too late to maintain that tooth or those teeth.

Then there is the patient who has a single missing tooth and the teeth on either side of the space are not particularly damaged or highly restored. These indivuals can now have a predictable single-tooth implant replacement without damaging other teeth. If the teeth surrounding a missing tooth are not damaged, then prepping those teeth can create the need for a root canal or lead to peridontal problems that are often associated with bridges at some point later in the patient's life. This is not to say that dentures, partial dentures, and bridges have been unsuccessful. In fact, they are a reasonably predictable approach to allowing patients to eat and function normally. They are simply not as successful as dental implants.

Patient Acceptance
I have become aware from my own experience and those of many high-level implant practices that most patients receiving dental implants are literally ecstatic with their decision. Dental implants are one of the most life-changing services that can be provided by our profession in an effort to help our patients restore their teeth. The dental implant is one of the great opportunities we have as dental professionals to provide the highest quality of care and they should be thought of today as a standard option rather than a high-level, sophisticated service.

Dental Implants: the best alternative to ill-fitting dentures
While many problems with dentures — slippage, food restrictions, and messy adhesives — are well known, other complicating factors exist as well. In contrast, dental implants are often a more natural, more comfortable option.

When more than one tooth needs to be replaced, the problem of decreased support becomes unavoidable, as does decreased chewing efficiency. Although a bridge will replace the missing teeth, it will not restore the chewing efficiency, due to the increased loss of root support. Dental implants compensate to a great degree for the lost root support and restore greater chewing efficiency.

A patient with all teeth in place has what is known as 100% chewing efficiency. If that patient lost all of his or her teeth and was provided with a proper fitting upper and lower denture on an adequate ridge, the chewing efficiency would be a mere 15% to 18%. With bone-anchored implants and a fixed prosthesis, that number can raise as high as 85%.

In single tooth situations, an implant can offer numerous advantages as well. If the teeth adjacent to a toothless area are perfectly healthy and have no fillings, a patient has two choices. He or her can get a bridge, which requires filing down the two adjacent teeth. Alternatively, a patient could get an implant, which doesn't require alteration to the adjacent teeth. Furthermore, a single tooth implant restoration can present a better long-term appearance, especially in the front part of the mouth ("the smile line"), due to prevention of bone resorption in the toothless site and elimination of the grey metal margin of a traditional crown.

The dental practice of Dr. Pollock has been successfully providing implant dentistry since July 1996. According to Dr. Pollock, dental implants are truly providing patients a third set of teeth that was never available before. Patients say there is very little difference to patients between their natural teeth and the implant restorations. Implants are truly creating a higher quality of life for patients. His success rate is 99% over the past 9 years, and places about 275 implants a year! For more information please contact your general dentist, or Dr. Kevin Pollock.

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