Many people prefer dental implants over dentures, bridges, and crowns for their durability and support with chewing and consuming a different variety of food. As we comprehend, you are on the verge of preferring just that.
As evident by your navigation to this guide, you are only their lasting away from recommending it further or getting one implanted in your jaws. Given the focus of this post here, you’d not only learn how long do full arch dental implants last but also what goes into placing them.
With that said, here is the beginning with what makes up a dental implant and how each component plays its role in making it exceedingly favorable for people.
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What Goes into Placing a Dental Implant?
To start with how long do dental implants last, they comprise three components: an implant itself, an abutment, and a crown topping both. The implants are made of metal, and the abutment follows the same build as for them. At the last, the crown is made of ceramic only, for it matches the other available and natural teeth, offering functionality alike.
The placement, which starts with the removal of the damaged tooth, isn’t as easy as it looks. It’s because once the deteriorated tooth is removed, comes grafting, a process of adding more bone into your jaw from other parts of the body. It depends on whether your jawbone is strong enough to withstand the placement of the implant, i.e., it must not be too soft or hollow, for the placement involves screwing for added firmness.
The implant is then left to form a bond with surrounding jawbone tissues, which may take months, and then is topped with an abutment, followed by a crown placement by a considerable margin of time. It is all done to make the implant more durable and lasting, another reason for preferring it over other tooth replacement options.
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What Happens after the Placement of a Dental Implant?
Like every other surgical procedure, you’d feel discomfort in your jaw and surrounding tissues after a dental implant, which involves multiple stages as defined above, and the discomforts might vary depending on each stage:
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Pain
Initially, after a dental implant, you may feel severe pain in that entire area. For instance, if it’s the upper row of your teeth to get an implant, you’d feel intense pain for a few days, or if you are careful with medicines, it would fade sooner.
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Mild Bleeding
It’s possible that upon brushing your teeth you may spit blood out of your mouth, which is nothing to worry about, for it’s a normal post-implant syndrome that would keep reducing with the passage of time.
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Bruising and Swelling
A day after an implant, you may experience bruises on your cheeks or jawlines, deceiving you into thinking of them as fingerprints. The same is the case with swelling, which would cause your face and particularly gums to swell up. This is common and will return to the normal state with proper intake of medications and precautions.
Think of these post-implant effects as the price of healthy and fearless living, biting and chewing as much bigger burger as you want. Well, not really. Anyways, in case of an emergency, we’d suggest you consult with your oral surgeon, as they’ll ensure you don’t have to visit them more often, provided you follow what they ask of you.
Not to forget, these could also be the symptoms of a failed dental implant. In this case, we won’t ask you to wait for them to get severe but visit your dentist as soon as you can, for they will identify them better.
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As to how you can identify if they are a result of a failed implant, the bleeding won’t be minor, your gums will swell more, you would experience more pain, and there would be dreadful bruises on your cheeks or jawline. In this situation, your doctor will remove the implant at once, and after a few days, with your willingness, will place another one.
How Long Do Permanent Dental Implants Last?
Now for the real question, i.e., how long do dental implants last, they are a permanent solution to your deteriorated teeth. It’s their lasting that makes them a solution worth such replacement. They are a direct competitor to implant-supported overdentures, which combine both dentures and implants. However, they are preferred most in full-mouth surgeries and not for a single tooth replacement.
The implants, made of metal, may last you a lifetime upon embracing precautions and following strict hygiene, and so will the abutment, for it’s made of the same material, and needs as much care as the implant itself.
The crown, however, has a limited life expectancy due to its exposure to everyday biting and chewing activities, causing it to wear out faster. But, with regular brushing and flossing, its life may increase beyond 15 years, the maximum time it lasts on average.
The location of an implant also plays a vital role in increasing or decreasing its life expectancy. If it’s placed at the back, it would wear out faster, for it’d be more involved in chewing the food. However, if it’s in the front, it'd only have to do with a few uses that won’t affect its lifespan much.
Are Dental Implants better than Dental Bridges?
Yes, they are, and in many ways. For instance, the dental bridges slip while you bite or chew something with them, not always, but they tend to. Also, they may cause the surrounding teeth to swell up as a result of frequent chewing, which makes them even more dangerous, but again, not always.
The dental implants, as you have read, act opposite to the bridges, for they neither slip nor stain out the surrounding teeth, accounting for a better experience that feels totally natural. It is because the implants are infused into the jaws, which takes months, hence, doesn’t let them leave their place, and supports you with chewing stiff items as well.
What Causes the Dental Implants to Fail?
The very first cause is acting irresponsibly with the maintenance of hygiene and pairing that with diseases like diabetes and cancer, we’d suggest you expect a total failure, even before the implant is properly placed into your jaw.
It’s because the diabetic or cancer patients are more vulnerable to microvascular complications, which delay the healing process, and in some cases, might even stop, causing the failure of dental implants prematurely.
The Takeaway
Dental implants comprise three components including the implant itself, an abutment, and the crown. The implant and abutment, because they are made of metal, may last you a lifetime, but the life of the crown will depend upon your sincerity with its hygiene, which lasts up to 15 years on average. However, it doesn’t cut the implant and abutment off the scene of proper hygiene, which you’d need to do as seriously as you do for the crown.
Here’s more in relation to this guide that you’d find quite useful: 10 Dental Procedures for Repairing Bad and Damaged Teeth.