Loosing a tooth dental implants
For a dental patient, losing a natural tooth can be an emotional and depressing process. Dentists have understood this and, for many years, have sought to help patients preserve natural teeth to the greatest extent possible, even performing multiple root canals and other invasive and costly procedures to save a patient’s diseased tooth. However, the AAID (American Academy of Implant Dentistry) recently issued a statement claiming that dental “heroics” should be abandoned and dentists should instead replace teeth that have been damaged by substantial decay and gum disease with dental implants instead.
Dr. John Minichetti stated he did not see the justification for a patient having to undergo several painful and financially burdensome procedures to save a failing tooth. He claims that times have changed and that preserving a troubled tooth is no longer the best option for patients, either from an aesthetic or health perspective. He feels that preserving teeth until they fall out is not in the patient’s best interest.
Patients who face the loss of a natural tooth often want to try to save the tooth more because of aesthetic reasons than for any others. Today’s dental implants can offer these patients a viable and natural-looking alternative. Most of the time, there is no visual difference between a dental implant and a natural tooth, and the functionality is exactly the same too. Using dental implants can help a patient to better accept the loss of a natural tooth by providing a natural-looking result without having to go through root canals and other painful procedures in an attempt to save their questionable tooth. Dental implants, therefore, can often provide the best possible outcome for many patients.
Additionally, several research studies have shown better success rates for dental implant procedures versus root canals. The Journal of Oral Implantology published one such study which showed that dental implants for single teeth are over 98% successful even after a period of 7 years and that the patients in the study experienced no bone loss from the implants. The rate of failures for root canals was higher. Abscesses can cause root canals to fail, at which point the patient must undergo surgery to fix the infection. 5% of root canals were shown to fail, and patients who have undergone repeated root canals had even higher rates of failure – research shows failure rates ranging from 12 to 63%.
Aside from the health considerations, aesthetics are immensely important for many patients, and surprisingly, saving a patient’s natural tooth may actually have a less appealing cosmetic result than removing the tooth and replacing it with a dental implant. This is because keeping a patient’s own tooth may require their dentist to raise their gum line and expose a tooth’s roots so that a new crown can be anchored there. This can create an unattractive result, and patients should always speak to their dentists about how their tooth will look in the end if they choose to preserve it via a traditional endodontic procedure.