What is the Procedure for Dental Implants?

  1. The first step your dentist will do is a full assessment to check your suitability for treatment. This will include a thorough evaluation, including x-rays to assess your jaw bone. Your dentist will also discuss alternative options for you as well such as bridges and dentures. You dentist will be able to give you a preliminary estimate for the treatment. To be able to check if your jaw bone is suitable for implants you dentist will need to take a 3D scan. We will be able to discuss the scan with you and go through what the procedure entails.
  2. The next process is to take some initial records of your teeth as a ‘before treatment’ clinical record. This involves clinical photographs and either a scan or impressions of your teeth. This is often completed by one of our qualified nursing team.
  3. Your dentist will review all the records again with you in depth. You will be given a full written consent and treatment estimate. You will have plenty of time to ask any questions you may have.
  4. The next stage is placing the implant. This is completed under local anaesthetic, the same as you would for a filling. A small incision is made in your gum to access the bone underneath. There will be some drilling and water whilst the jawbone is being prepared for the implant. The implant is placed with a cover screw over the top to protect it. The gum is them sutured back into place.The surgery itself doesn’t take very long around 30-40 minutes. You shouldn’t feel any pain but you may be slightly sore and swollen afterwards. We’ll supply you with an aftercare pack with painkillers and instructions on keeping the area clean.
  5. We’ll review you a week or so later and remove any sutures still remaining. We’ll leave the area for at least three months for the implant to integrate into the jaw bone.
  6. After about three months we’ll bring you back to ‘uncover’ the implant. We’ll give you some local anaesthetic and use a dental laser to remove the gum above the implant. We use a laser instead of a scalpel as it stems any bleeding as we go and faster healing. Once the top of the implant is accessed the cover screw is removed and a larger healing abutment is placed. This will be visible in your mouth through the gum. This will ensure the gum heals and shapes nicely ready for the final ‘tooth’ or crown on top.
  7. After about six weeks we’ll start the process of attaching your final ‘tooth’ or crown to the implant. To do this we’ll remove the healing abutment and place another type of abutment which we will either taken an impression and send to the laboratory to make your final crown or we may be able to scan using our CAD CAM CEREC machine and mill your crown on site at the practice and fit it the same day!