In Harley Street, dental implants are becoming the first choice for many people who need to have teeth replaced. Although dental implants have been around a few decades now, they have really taken off in the last few years.
Fully functional versus loose and broken
The reasons for the popularity of dental implants in Harley Street is because people get back the full function of their teeth, no matter how many they have lost. Implants are long-lasting and can keep going for a lifetime, doing away with the hassle of loose dentures, broken bridges and failed dentures. They are available from good dentists such as those at Harley Street Dental Clinic.
Also, because there are always new advances in materials and techniques, dentists can offer dental implants in Harley Street to people who would have once been turned away from treatment.
Solving bone density issues with cheeky implants
The main reason that people get turned away from treatment for dental implants in Harley Street is not because of lack of funds (implants are not cheap), but because they do not have a strong enough jawbone to support the implants. Checking bone density is a vital part of the first consultation, which includes a very thorough examination, probably including x-rays to ascertain the condition of the jawbone. When a patient has been without teeth for a while, their jawbone may well have lost some density and size due to a natural process called resorption.
In the past, having a shrunken jawbone was enough to be rejected for treatment, because the bone would not be strong enough to hold the implants in place during chewing, which exerts strong, multi-directional pressure.
However, research moves dentistry ever forward, and now people who were once rejected for treatment, are now finding they can have implants, provided they undergo preparatory treatments, such as a bone graft, where bone is grafted into the sinus above the upper jaw.
Another way round a lack of density in the upper jawbone is to use zygomatic implants. They have much longer implant posts than jawbone implants, enabling them to reach up through the jawbone and anchor into the cheekbone.
