Dental Implants – Flower Mound, TX
The Modern Solution for Tooth Loss
Replacements for missing teeth have big shoes to fill, because there’s nothing that can quite compare to home-grown pearly whites. Our team at Lauri Barge, DDS offers the closest alternative to natural teeth, called dental implants in our Flower Mound, TX dental office. This treatment allows us to restore the entire structure of missing teeth from the ground, upward—allowing patients to enjoy both aesthetic and functional benefits that distinguish this procedure from all of the rest.
Why Choose Lauri Barge, DDS for Dental Implants?
- We Accommodate Anxious Patients
- Experienced & Friendly Dental Team
- In-House Dental Plan Available
What are Dental Implants?
Dental implants themselves are small, titanium posts that are surgically placed below the gumline to replace the root structure of one or more missing teeth. Due to the fact that they’re made from a biocompatible metal, they’re able to undergo a process called osseointegration, where they fuse with the jawbone. This allows them to function exactly as your natural roots did. After you’ve healed, our team will restore the visible portion of your smile by attaching a dental crown, bridge, or denture to the implants to secure them in place.
The 4-Step Dental Implant Process
Every dental implant treatment varies from patient to patient because it’s customized to fit each person’s unique needs. However, there are four steps that every patient can expect to experience throughout the process. To learn more about how dental implants work, take a look at the process below:
Initial Dental Implant Consultation
During this initial visit, our team will help determine whether dental implants are right for you. We’ll take X-rays and outline a treatment timeline, so you know exactly what to expect throughout the process. If we find that your smile lacks the necessary jawbone density or that you are suffering from dental decay, infection, or gum disease, we’ll incorporate preliminary treatments such as periodontal therapy, tooth extraction, or bone grafting and perform these services so that your smile has the best environment for dental implants to thrive.
Dental Implant Surgery
Dr. Barge partners with expert oral surgeons in the area to provide the best possible results. Once you receive your referral, you’ll arrive for your surgery and receive local anesthesia. Once you are comfortable, they will make small incisions in your gums before placing each implant post into the desired location. The implant dentist will make sure they are positioned and aligned properly before closing the gum tissue and sending you home to recover.
Dental Implant Osseointegration/Abutment
Once your implants have been placed, you’ll heal and undergo a process called osseointegration, where the implants will fuse with your jawbone. This can take anywhere from 4-6 months. Once fully healed, we’ll attach small, metal connector pieces called abutments to them. These ensure that your restoration remains affixed to your implant posts.
Delivery of Dental Implant Restorations
When we receive your final restoration from the dental lab, we’ll call you back in to attach it to your implants and complete your smile. Depending on how many teeth are missing, you will receive a customized dental crown, bridge, or denture. No matter which one you receive, you can expect that your new teeth will work like normal and look completely natural.
Benefits of Dental Implants
Many dentists and patients alike refer to dental implants as “the gold standard of tooth replacement.” These titanium posts offer a wide array of benefits that make them a popular restoration option among people with missing pearly whites. They replace the entire structure of your teeth, improving your health, self-esteem, and quality of life in ways you won’t expect from traditional treatments like dentures and bridges. Read on to learn more about the benefits of dental implants in Flower Mound!
Day-to-Day Benefits
- Natural appearance: Looking at a dental implant side-by-side with a natural tooth, you won’t be able to notice the difference. These metal posts are typically topped with a custom-designed porcelain restoration, giving them a more lifelike appearance.
- Stronger bite: Unlike traditional restorations like bridges and dentures, you’ll be able to eat all your favorite foods comfortably without having to worry about your teeth shifting out of place.
- Requires minimal care: You won’t have to use any special techniques or products to maintain your dental implants. Simply by brushing, flossing, rinsing, and visiting Dr. Barge for routine checkups, you can easily keep your new and improved smile in pristine condition.
Health Benefits
- Comfortable tooth replacement: With dental implants, you won’t have to worry about discomforts that might come with other traditional options, such as gum sores, tooth sensitivity, and jaw soreness. Many patients even forget that they have their new teeth due to how comfortable and natural they feel.
- Protect permanent teeth: Since dental implants don’t rely on the gums or healthy neighboring teeth, you’ll be able to preserve any remaining natural pearly whites. They will also serve as placeholders to prevent dental drifting.
- A comprehensive solution: Dental implants are the one treatment that can stop and reverse jawbone deterioration that happens after tooth loss. Not only does this preserve the foundation for any remaining teeth, but it also helps retain a more youthful facial structure in the long run!
Long-Term Benefits
- Reliable results: These titanium posts typically boast an amazing success rate of over 95%. When placed by an experienced professional like Dr. Barge, dental implants can maintain that same rate even 10 years after placement.
- Long-lasting solution: You can easily expect your dental implants to last several decades to a lifetime. Since the restoration atop the metal posts can last many years, this can make this a more cost-effective option than traditional ones, which need to be replaced every few years.
Who Can Dental Implants Help?
Not every patient is a good candidate for dental implants; however, that doesn’t mean that they can’t get there! Some patients require preparatory procedures to ensure the success of the osseointegration process, like a bone graft, sinus lift, or periodontal therapy. Once your gums are healthy and you can successfully undergo the placement process, our team will outline the rest of your treatment for you, including how we’re going to restore your smile.
Missing One Tooth
For a single missing tooth, we’ll place one dental implant below the gumline. Once it has fused with the jawbone and the gums have healed, we’ll place an abutment that will secure a customized dental crown that will fill the gap in your arch.
Missing Multiple Teeth
If you’re missing several consecutive teeth, we will secure a customized dental bridge to two dental implants instead of existing teeth, like what would be required if you received a traditional bridge. This extends the life of your restoration and health of your natural smile.
Missing All of Your Teeth
Instead of investing in a traditional denture that can shift and slip in your mouth and won’t keep your jaw from eroding, we offer implant dentures. These are dentures that are secured to anywhere from four to eight dental implants that are strategically located along the arch of teeth.
Learn More About Implant Dentures
Understanding the Cost of Dental Implants
While you might want dental implants, there’s a chance you’re worried about their price. You may even think you couldn’t afford them. However, the truth is that the cost of dental implants in Flower Mound varies by patient. As such, you can only get a solid treatment estimate after consulting with Dr. Barge and our team. Whatever the expense, though, our office will work with you to make the procedure budget-friendly. If you’d like to learn more, just keep reading for further details. Otherwise, feel free to call our office or book a consultation visit!
Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery
Before implant surgery, you may need to receive preliminary dental treatments. Gum disease therapy, tooth extractions, or bone grafting could improve your restorations’ success. That being said, these services would add to your expense. Thankfully, though, many dental plans offer partial coverage for them.
At the same time, remember that the actual surgery’s price will depend on its complexity. It’ll cost more or less based on where the implants are placed in the jaw, what kind of sedation you need, etc.
The Parts of Your Dental Implant
Aspects of the implants themselves will also impact the price tag. Some of these will include the following:
- The Number of Implants You Get: As you’d expect, one dental implant for one missing tooth will cost less than 4-6 for an implant denture. Still, an implant denture is more cost-effective than replacing multiple teeth separately.
- Implant Size or Material: Some implants are made longer or shorter given where they’re placed. Likewise, implants can be made from zirconia or titanium.
- Implant Brand: Different manufacturers make implants differently to cater to unique patients.
How Dental Implants Can Save You Money
You may consider dentures or bridges due to their lower upfront price. Even so, implants are often more cost-effective in the long run.
For starters, implants don’t need replacements or adjustments every 5-10 years like other restorations. With proper care, they can last 15, 20, or even 30 years! Therefore, treatment would only involve one moderately-priced visit instead of multiple cheaper visits that cost more overall.
Similarly, maintaining implants is low-cost. You can clean them like natural teeth — just brush and floss as usual. In contrast, dentures and bridges may need costly pastes, cleaning solutions, and adhesives.
Does My Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?
Typically, dental insurance doesn’t cover dental implants. That said, exceptions do exist; your plan might offer coverage for a percentage of your restoration. For that reason, we’ll review your policy to ensure you maximize your benefits. You can count on us to help with this process — We have years of experience in this area.
Making Dental Implants Affordable
Even without insurance, it’s possible to make dental implants affordable. Our own office uses CareCredit financing, which lets patients pay for treatments with monthly, low-interest installments. Using this method, you could cover the cost of implants in Flower Mound over a longer period instead of all at once.
Maintaining & Caring for Your Dental Implants
Dental implants can help you enjoy a strong, dazzling smile for the rest of your life, but they’ll only last that long if you’re taking proper care of them. While implants do have a high long-term success rate, they can still potentially fail or need to be replaced if they’re badly damaged or if the tissue anchoring them to the jaw becomes infected. There are, fortunately, some simple steps you can take to protect your newly rebuilt smile so that it lasts as long as possible.
Make Oral Hygiene a Priority
Even though dental implants can’t get cavities, cleaning them regularly is crucial for preventing gum disease, which is a common cause of dental implant failure. As such, sticking to your daily dental hygiene routine is more important than ever. You should be brushing and flossing your implants twice a day – just like your natural teeth. You should also start rinsing with antibacterial mouth rinse to clean the parts of your mouth that can be difficult to reach with a toothbrush.
Eat a Healthy Diet
You’re free to eat whatever you want with dental implants, but be wary of hard or sticky foods that could damage your posts as well as sugary foods that could put you at risk for gum disease. You should make sure that your meals and snacks consist of plenty of foods that are good for your smile and can help your implants last a long time. For example, foods that are high in calcium and vitamin C help strengthen your jawbone and keep your tissues healthy.
Break Bad Habits
Chewing fingernails, crunching ice, opening packages with your teeth, and biting overly hard objects such as pen tips can all potentially cause dental habits to break and fail. Protect your new teeth by putting a stop to these habits as soon as possible. If you smoke, you’ll be told to stop before and after your implant surgery; tobacco interferes with the body’s ability to heal around the implants, and it can make your mouth more vulnerable to an implant-threatening imperfections.
Protect Your Dental Implants
Even though your dental implants are strong, they can still be damaged in an accident. When you play sports of any kind, be sure to wear a mouthguard in order to keep your dental implants safe along with the rest of your smile. Also, if you grind your teeth at night, you should invest a nightguard to ensure that your implants aren’t damaged while you sleep.
Schedule Regular Dental Checkups
Visit our office every six months for a regular checkup and cleaning. We’ll be able to check for any issues with your dental implants that you may have overlooked on your own. If there is something wrong, we can take care of the problem before it puts your dental implants at risk.
Dental Implant FAQs
Dental implants in Flower Mound are a lifelong commitment. It is normal to have some concerns before moving forward with the treatment. Don’t worry, Dr. Barge will explain everything during your dental implant consultation. While you wait for your appointment, here are the answers to a few frequently asked questions to ease any apprehensions.
Can I take dental implants out?
No, only a trained dental professional can remove them, such as if failure occurs. A dental implant is unlike any other prosthetic because it replicates both the crown and root. Your jaw will fuse to the post through a process called osseointegration. Therefore, you can’t take out the post; however, some implant dentures are removable for easy cleaning.
How long do dental implants last?
A dental implant can last for 30 years or more, but various factors affect the lifespan, like the location of the post. The back teeth undergo more wear and tear than the front, so they may have a slightly shorter lifespan. Your oral hygiene habits and lifestyle are crucial to ensuring your replacement tooth lasts for decades. Routine cleanings and checkups with your dentist will safeguard your smile from preventable complications, like an infection. Your implant dentist in Flower Mound, Dr. Barge, will advise you to avoid anything that can damage your dental implant, like eating hard/sticky foods, using your teeth to open packages, or smoking.
How successful are dental implants?
Dental implants are the most reliable method of treating tooth loss. They have over a 95% success rate with the right maintenance, like brushing, flossing, and using a daily mouthrinse. Besides keeping your mouth clean at home, schedule semi-annual cleanings and checkups. Dr. Barge will recommend protecting your dental implants from unnecessary pressure, so you’ll need a nightguard if you have a habit of grinding or clenching your teeth. You’ll need to wear an athletic mouthguard if you play sports. Eat chewy or hard foods in moderation. Cut them into small pieces, so they are easier to chew. You should also break any bad oral habits, like biting your fingernails or using your teeth as tools. With a proactive approach to protecting your dental implant, your new smile can thrive for a lifetime.
What should I do if my dental implant feels loose?
Your dental implant should never feel loose after your jawbone has fully integrated with the post. If your prosthetic tooth is a little wiggly, it can be a sign of a serious problem that can lead to dental implant failure. You don’t want to wait to see your dentist. In some instances, the problem may be minor, like a loose restoration, while more severe cases can be caused by bone loss or infection. If you notice any signs of dental implant failure, contact our office right away, like pain, redness, or swelling. If you wait to schedule an appointment, it may be too late for Dr. Barge to save your dental implant.