Periodontology And Dental Implants

Periodontology And Dental Implants

The link between gum disease and dental implant placement.

Many areas of dentistry overlap. For example, before you have any cosmetic dental treatment, we always make sure that your mouth is in a healthy condition before we perform any procedure that is designed solely to improve the appearance of your teeth.

At The Dental Centre Bedford, we have taken great care to assemble a team of specialists in order to offer our patients the best experience possible. One of these team members is Mario Veltri, who is a specialist in periodontics and has also undergone extensive training in dental implants. In today’s blog, we take a look at how these two aspects of dentistry can overlap.

Gum disease

As we have previously discussed, gum disease can have a devastating impact on the health of a person’s mouth if not treated in its early stages. In addition to unpleasant symptoms, such as sore or bleeding gums, and halitosis, tooth loss is a real possibility. What impact though, does gum disease have, when a tooth has already been lost and a dental implant is being considered to replace it?

Preparation for the implant procedure

To make sure that our patients are suitable candidates for implant placement, a full mouth examination will be completed and any necessary preparatory treatment carried out. Ensuring that the gums are healthy is an important part of this and should gum disease be detected at this stage, it will need to be treated before a final decision can be taken as to whether your implant can be placed.

Implant aftercare

Once an implant has been placed successfully, you will need to take care of it diligently. Whilst the implant itself cannot be damaged by gum disease, the surrounding bone and soft tissue can, and this can have serious consequences for stability and longevity.

Periodontitis, a more advanced form of gum disease, can degrade the jawbone causing your implant to lose its secure base. Another disease, specific to dental implants, is peri-implantitis. This has similarities to periodontitis and affects not only the bone, but the soft tissues surrounding the implant. Both of these diseases can lead to the failure of the dental implant.

The precursor to periodontitis is known as gingivitis and this can be reversible if caught early. The same is true of peri-implantitis where the prior stage, known as peri-implant mucositis, is usually reversible with treatment. Good personal oral care and regular visits to our local Bedford dental clinic, should help you to avoid these conditions or, where they occur, allow rapid treatment.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of replacing your missing teeth with dental implants, we are always pleased to see new patients for a free non clinical consultation, to discuss your needs and answer any queries that you might have. To arrange your consultation, please call The Dental Centre Bedford on 01234 819868.