Same-Day Dental Implants
At Brooklyn Heights Dental, Dr. Eugene D. Stanislaus and Dr. Lisa Reid educate patients about restorative, prosthetic, and cosmetic dental treatments in their Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, and Fort Greene, NY offices. They can answer all your questions about same-day dental implants, create a custom dental implant treatment plan, and give you the strong, beautiful smile you want.
In this article, you’ll learn the key difference between traditional and same-day implants, and how CEREC is used for same-day implants.
What Are Same Day Implants?
Are same-day dental implants too good to be true? The answer to this question depends on how you describe a finished dental implant and restoration:
Do you define same-day dental implants as implants placed and restored with temporary, natural-looking teeth attached the same day? Then, the answer is yes. Dentists equipped and trained in providing implant crowns, bridges, and dentures with CEREC technology can accomplish this.
Do you define same-day dental implants as implants placed and restored with a permanent, final crown, bridge, or denture? This is not yet possible in dentistry.
Traditional vs. Same-Day Dental Implants
Both treatments are effective at replacing missing teeth. In a clinical trial published in 2012, the National Center for Biotechnology Information discovered that the success rates between conventional and immediate dental implants were statistically trivial.
Generally, traditional implants require multiple surgeries and healing periods:
- Dentists remove any unhealthy teeth (if applicable), and patients must wait for the extraction site to heal.
- Then, dentists place dental implants and wait for osseointegration (fusing of bone and implant, which takes up to six months).
- An appointment is required to reveal the implant post tops and add abutment pieces, which will hold the final prosthetic(s).
- After the gums heal around the abutments, the dentist attaches permanent restoration(s).
Same-day dental implants may seem like a more attractive treatment plan because patients can arrive at the dentist’s office and leave with natural-looking, temporary teeth. After the dentist makes sure that the osseointegration and healing processes are successful, he or she will secure the final restoration(s).
Planning and Preparation for Same-Day Implants
After studying 3-D scans of the patient’s teeth and jaws, the dentist will propose a tailored treatment plan to place implants. The plan will include custom design of permanent restorations, in a dental lab. For same-day, temporary restorations:
- Smaller restorations (like crowns) are usually made in-office with the CEREC® system.
- Larger restorations (like dentures) are fabricated in a dental lab.
- The prosthetics are ready to place on the day of implant surgery.
Surgery Day
Traditional dental implants typically require at least two surgeries. With same-day dental implants, extraction, implantation, and restoration typically happen while the patient is under one dose of anesthesia, so they leave the office with a restored smile.
A bonus of same-day smile surgery after extraction is that the immediately-loaded dental implants help keep the tooth extraction socket clean of contaminants.
Recovery
It’s important to note that all dental implants require time to heal and fuse with bone. Also, the restoration placed immediately after dental implant surgery is secure but temporary, and the dentist will need to upgrade it later.
After surgery, patients may experience:
- Swelling
- Bruising
- Discomfort
- Light bleeding
You will be provided with post-surgery instructions and tips to make recovery more comfortable.
Contact Us Today
Same-day dental implants are a highly successful tooth replacement method that supports natural chewing forces and reduces the risk of bone atrophy.
Want to find out for sure if same-day dental implants are a suitable treatment for you? Contact our Brooklyn office by calling (718) 857-6639 or messaging us online to schedule a consultation.