Dental Implants can Help You Reach Your Smile Goals

No matter what your job or lifestyle, in Southern California everyone is comparing how friendly and full your smile is with the gleaming grins of celebrities on everything from billboards and social media to screens tiny and 3D.

But you may be embarrassed because of teeth that are severely chipped, ground down, not evenly spaced, or even missing. If you lost one or more teeth due to an accident or the results of not brushing or flossing adequately, you might think it’s okay just to ignore and try to chew and speak as best you can and hope this doesn’t keep happening. But that would be a serious mistake, since the neighboring teeth naturally are prone to lean in to fill the gap, causing a domino effect from other teeth, so that they become misaligned. The result is more teeth loosening and falling out.

The best way to prevent this from happening is to replace them with dental implants. An implant starts with a biocompatible titanium post (similar to a tooth root) that is anchored into the empty socket and allowed to integrate into the underlying jawbone. This is then attached to a porcelain crown that is exactly matched to the shade of your other teeth, so that no one can tell you ever had one missing.

The advantages of an implant over alternatives are that a bridge (a crown attached to neighboring teeth and not inserted into the jaw) does not last nearly as long, while dentures need to be readjusted every five years or so because of continued jawbone loss.

To find out if implants can help you reach your smile goals, call Dr. Shervin M. Louie in Los Angeles and Larchmont Village today to set an appointment for a full dental exam. If you are a good candidate, the process starts with a 3D CT Scan, which uses rotating X-rays and computers to create a full digital map of your teeth, gums, and underlying jawbone.

If a tooth is loose, it will need to be extracted and the socket allowed to heal, when an implant will be placed. A mold modeled on the digital images will enable us to create a temporary crown to allow you to chew and speak normally while waiting for the final one to be crafted by a top dental lab. Once the bone and tissues around the implant have healed, you will come back to our office to have the crown attached and adjusted.

A dental implant can be a permanent solution with proper care, a vital step towards your perfect smile