In order to secure a set of dentures with dental implants in Clapham, we need to ensure that you have enough bone to do so from the get-go in order to have a successful surgery. However, if you have been wearing loose dentures for years, you may be at risk of having lost too much bone and will first require bone grafting before we can proceed with implants. At Clapham South Dental Centre, we want you to be able to enjoy everything that life has to offer, and we understand that a secure set of teeth will really help you with this which is why we will always ensure that you are a good candidate for implants before you undergo surgery.
Assessment
At your consultation appointment, we will use a number of X-rays and scans to determine how much bone you have in your jaw and whether you are a good candidate to receive dental implants in Clapham immediately or not. However, if you are not a good candidate for the dental implant procedure right away it is not the end of the line but instead the very beginning; we can still help the process along with a bone grafting surgery that will help provide you with enough bone to stabilise implants.
Time consuming treatments
If you are willing to undergo a bone graft as well as dental implant surgery you need to first know and accept that it is going to be at least a year before you will be able to wear a securely fixed set of teeth. This is because each of these major surgeries has a long recovery period that needs to be adhered to if it is going to be successful.
The two surgeries
Bone graft – A bone graft surgery will be done in a hospital under general anaesthetic. We will first determine where the best area will be to implant new bone and then a piece of your own bone, that is either taken from the hip or chin, will be implanted into the upper jaw. When we use your own tissue to do this, your body is far less likely to reject it than some other foreign organic matter like an animal bone thus ensuring that the surgery is a success. In a case where we cannot take your own bone, we will use a synthetic substitute that is determined to work just as well. After the surgery, you will need to wait 6 months for your body to heal and regrow new bone.
Why is this surgery needed? The length of time you have gone without teeth has caused your jaw bone to dissolve substantially enough that it can no longer support the dental implants in Clapham implant.
Dental implants – after the 6 months is over, there will have been enough bone growth in your jaw so that we can perform the implant surgery; we insert titanium implants into the jaw which will support your dentures after they have had another 6 months to fuse with your new bone. We cannot secure a set of dentures to newly fitted implants as they are not stable enough to do so but we will let you use a temporary set of dentures during this waiting period. This way you can still eat and speak as usual until we are ready to fix them to the implants thus stabilizing them so they will not fall out.
