Here's Why Your Unsalvageable Tooth Should Be Replaced With An Immediate Dental Implant

The decision to extract a significantly decayed tooth can be made quickly. All a dentist must do is assess the tooth and perform diagnostic testing (such as an X-ray) before making a determination that restoration will not be possible. There's no crown or other form of tooth rebuilding that will save it, and these efforts would be futile. The good news is that you're a candidate to have the tooth replaced with a same-day dental implant. What's required for this procedure?

Long-Term Absence 

For a lot of patients who receive implants, the tooth has already been absent for some time (potentially even years). This means that the place in their jawbone where the tooth was located has lost some of its density. This sounds harsh, but it's a perfectly natural process.

Bone Health

Your body distributes nutrients where they're needed, and when it comes to your jawbone, the bone tissues demonstrate their need for calcium by undergoing constant stimulation. The teeth attached to the jaw experience bite pressure, the underlying bone tissues are physically stimulated, and this is your body's cue to feed them calcium and other nutrients to maintain their density.

Lost Nutrients

When a tooth is lost, the stimulation under the now-empty dental socket ceases, and nutrients are diverted from this (small) section of the jaw. The jaw is not adversely affected, other than that the slight loss of mass means the bone can no longer support a tooth in this empty socket. For this reason, many patients who receive an implant must first undergo bone grafting. Without the manual addition of bone grafting, the implant in the jaw would fail under the constant bite pressure experienced by the implant's false tooth.

Adequate Bone Mass

Your tooth, though experiencing advanced decay and flagged for extraction, is still held in a socket supported by adequate bone mass. As such, if your oral health is sufficiently robust, your dentist can remove the problematic tooth and replace it with a dental implant in the same appointment. 

Three Components

An implant contains three components: a titanium alloy screw, a connective abutment, and the prosthetic crown (which is a false tooth made of ceramic and looks exactly like a healthy version of the tooth to be extracted). The decayed tooth will be removed under anesthetic, and the resulting exposed socket acts as a guide hole for the placement of the implant. The prosthetic tooth will be milled on-site while this is happening and can be immediately attached to the implant's abutment.

Because you're getting the finished product in a condensed period of time, be sure to follow your dentist's instructions about caring for your implant and its tooth. Even though your implant was installed more-or-less instantly, with proper care it will give you many years of service.

Contact a local dentist to learn more about dental implants.