Dental Implants — Canonsburg, PA

Initial Dental Implant Consultation

The first phase is the initial consultation, where you meet with Dr. Raj Vekariya to ensure that dental implants are right for you. During your exam, he’ll make sure that you have sufficient bone tissue available by capturing detailed X-rays of your jaw. He’ll also check to see if any tooth decay or gum disease is present as both of these conditions will require preparatory treatment before implants can be placed. If you are an eligible candidate for dental implants, we’ll get you scheduled for the next stage of your dental implant treatment.

Dental Implant Surgery

Next is the surgical placement, in which the implants are positioned in the jawbone where the teeth have gone missing. Thanks to his expertise in implant dentistry, Dr. Raj can handle this part of the procedure right here in our Canonsburg practice to make your implant journey nice and smooth. His expert touch and available dental sedation options ensures patients feel little to no discomfort either during or after the procedure. In fact, many are surprised just by how easy the treatment was to complete! He’ll also go over proper aftercare steps for you to follow, ensuring the smoothest recovery process possible.

Dental Implant Osseointegration & Abutment

For the next phase, your jawbone will need time to fuse with the dental implant, which usually takes between 4-6 months. This is a step known as osseointegration and it is incredibly important to keep the implant stable in the jaw for decades to come. After the implant has been fused with the bone tissue, you will come back to our office to have the abutment placed. This small connector is intended to create a foundation between the restoration and the implant itself. After a few more weeks of healing, you can receive your permanent restoration.

Delivery of Dental Implant Restoration(s)

Finally, you’ll return to our office for the last phase of treatment, which is restoration. We’ll secure your crown, bridge, or denture in place and you’ll be ready to go out and enjoy your brand-new smile! Your restoration is made from highly natural-looking materials, ensuring it looks as lifelike as your existing teeth and gum tissue. You’ll take care of your tooth replacement much like your natural teeth, which means daily brushing and flossing is a necessity. Of course, you should also visit us every six months for a checkup so we can examine your implant and its dedicated restoration.

Day-to-Day Benefits

• Confidence boost – Because dental implants look and feel fully natural, many patients feel that they have a new lease on their smile after getting them. With a complete set of teeth that you can trust not to slip around or fall out, your mood and self-esteem will improve. You might even experience new opportunities in your professional or romantic life thanks to this newfound sense of confidence.
• Talk and eat with ease – Regular dentures are notorious for shifting while you eat or making whistling or clicking noises while you speak. Since dental implants function like natural teeth and remain firmly in place, they let you chew all of your favorite foods and talk clearly.
• Simple oral hygiene – With implants, you won’t need to worry about removing your prosthetic, soaking it at night, or any other complicated oral care. In most cases, you can maintain dental implants just like you would natural teeth: twice-a-day brushing, daily flossing, and dental checkups every six months.

Health Benefits

• Reduce your risk of gum disease – It’s all too common for the nooks and crannies of a denture to harbor bacteria that can lead to infections in the gum tissue. By being so easy to clean, dental implants solve this problem, lowering your risk of gum disease as well as the numerous overall health conditions that have been linked to it.
• Protect your remaining teeth – To place a dental bridge, we’d have to shave down the enamel of two of your natural teeth. Without this protective layer, those teeth may end up weaker and more vulnerable to fracture, sensitivity, and decay. Dental implants can support themselves without relying on other teeth, so we don’t need to sacrifice any of your remaining dental structure.
• Preserve your jawbone – Just like natural tooth roots, dental implants are embedded in your jawbone. They provide the same stimulation through the forces of biting and chewing, preventing the jawbone from breaking down as it tends to do after tooth loss.

Long-Term Benefits

• Avoid premature aging – When the jawbone deteriorates, it loses the ability to support the muscles in your face. Eventually, you’ll develop wrinkles, your cheeks will look sunken, and you’ll appear much older than you really are. Dental implants are the only tooth replacement that prevent this by strengthening your jawbone.
• High success rate – Even after 10+ years, dental implants have a success rate of more than 95%. When you choose to visit a skilled implant dentist like Dr. Raj, you can trust that your new teeth will last for many years to come!
• Nearly permanent results – With the right care and maintenance, dental implants can last for 35+ years, and maybe even a lifetime. You won’t need to worry about getting your prosthetic replaced every decade like you would with bridges and dentures. Not to mention, you can save money in the long run by avoiding these replacements as well as specialized cleaning products.

Missing 1 Tooth

An implant-retained crown allows us to restore a single missing tooth in a way that is practically identical to nature. A custom-made, all-porcelain crown will be fitted to the implant post using a metal connector called an abutment, and once this is done, it will be virtually indistinguishable from your other teeth. We’ll shape and shade the crown so that it perfectly blends with your smile, and thanks to the titanium root, you can trust it to be just as strong as your natural teeth as well.

Missing Multiple Teeth

For patients who are missing several teeth in a row, we can also use implant crowns to construct a dental bridge. Two implant crowns can be placed on either side of the gap in a person’s smile, and they are then bonded to prosthetic teeth to close it.

Missing All Teeth

Are you sick and tired of your denture slipping and sliding around your mouth? If so, we can use dental implants to give you a set of teeth that are always rock-solid. We can make a prosthetic that snaps directly onto multiple implants placed within the jaw to give you a secure mold that a removable denture simply can’t match. Implant dentures also maintain their fit for much longer, and they even allow patients to have a significantly stronger bite force.

Alternatively, if you are missing an entire row of teeth, we can use All-On-4 dental implants to replace the missing structure with an implant denture in just one well-planned appointment. This unique method uses just four strategically placed implants to support a denture you’ll never have to worry about moving around in your mouth. With this treatment, you can literally wake up one morning with an incomplete smile and go to bed that night with a full set of teeth.

Missing Teeth with Low Jawbone Density

Mini dental implants are a great option for patients whose jawbones are too thin or brittle to support traditional implant posts. Mini implants are shorter and thinner than regular posts, but they can still be used to support a denture with a hold much more stable than a traditional one. As a plus, due to their reduced size, they can usually be placed and restored in less time than regular implants.

3D Cone Beam Imaging/3D CT Scanning

There are many variables that can affect the dental implant placement process, which is why we need to gather as much information as possible long before the surgery is performed. While traditional digital X-rays are helpful in many aspects of dentistry, there are some details that they don’t capture.

That’s where our 3D cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scanner comes in. The device can be used to take multiple pictures of your mouth and jaw and subsequently combine them into a comprehensive three-dimensional model. With the help of this model, we will be able to identify nerve pathways, blood vessels, and various other important structures; it also gives us a way to evaluate the thickness of your jawbone.

By using our CBCT scanner, we can figure out exactly where your dental implants need to be placed in your jaw. It also gives us a chance to plan ahead for potential obstacles in order to avoid issues during the surgery. (As an example, it allows us to place your dental implant posts in a way that won’t damage the nearby nerves.) There’s no need to worry about having a scan performed; the process is painless, and it won’t leave radiation in your body.

iTero Scanner

Once your dental implants have successfully fused with your jawbone, we can start the process of designing the final crown, bridge, or denture that will ultimately re-complete your grin. Since smiles come in all shapes and sizes, we will need to take an impression of your mouth so that a properly fitting restoration can be made. And when it comes to capturing impressions, our iTero scanner is a valuable tool.

You may be familiar with the more traditional type of dental impression that’s made by having patients bite down on a special kind of putty. This approach has a number of drawbacks; for one thing, the impression may become damaged when it’s removed from the mouth and might therefore have to be redone.

In contrast, iTero scans allow us to capture a virtual impression of your grin. This means that there’s no physical impression to worry about, and you won’t have to bite down on any uncomfortable putty. On top of that, iTero scans are highly accurate and can be taken in significantly less time.

Bone Grafting

It’s common to need a bone graft before getting dental implants. Your jawbone could be thin and need this treatment because of:

• Gum disease
• Wearing dentures for a long time
• Spaces left in the mouth after removal of a tooth
• An Injury or trauma to the face

Bone grafting is a surgical procedure that involves building or adding bone to the jaw either by making use of natural bone taken from another location or by using synthetic bone material.

At Center One Dental, grafting is performed by Dr. Raj at our Canonsburg, PA clinic using local anesthesia and sometimes sedation as well to get rid of anxiety and discomfort. After the procedure, antibiotics and pain medications are prescribed. You may be asked to rinse your mouth with anti-bacterial mouthwash. Eating hard foods and putting pressure on the graft should be avoided in order to allow proper healing. You will be required to visit our office for follow-up appointments in order for us to ensure that the healing process is on the right track. Once the grafted bone has healed and fused, the area will be ready for the placement of dental implants.

What to Do Directly After Dental Implant Surgery

Once you get home after your dental implant placement, you will naturally want to take whatever steps you can to keep yourself as comfortable as possible. However, your top priority should be making sure that the blood clot at the implant site doesn’t become dislodged; otherwise, you will have to deal with a painful dry socket. To keep the blood clot in place, you need to avoid:

• Using a straw to drink any sort of beverage.
• Touching the implant site with your fingers.
• (If a lot of saliva has built up in your mouth, get rid of it by swallowing or using a tissue.)

Common Side Effects When Recovering from Dental Implant Placement

If you haven’t had oral surgery performed before, you may not be sure what symptoms are considered normal after the procedure. Following dental implant placement, you can usually expect minor discomfort, swollen gums, and occasional bleeding. Taking an over-the-counter painkiller or holding a cold compress over the area can help you keep your symptoms under control; you should also be prepared to apply pressure with gauze if any bleeding occurs.

Your Diet After Dental Implant Surgery

Trying to chew hard foods after dental implant surgery could dislodge your blood clot. As such, your diet should consist of soft foods for at least a few days. Some foods that you might want to stock up on include pudding, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, pasta, and cold soups.

Post-Op Health & Oral Hygiene

If you don’t want an infection to disrupt the healing process, then you need to keep your mouth as clean as possible in the days following your dental implant surgery. As long as you are very gentle around the areas where the implant posts have been placed, you should be able to brush your teeth like normal. We also suggest rinsing with salt water after eating. Just remember not to spit the liquid out once you’re done rinsing; simply open your mouth and allow it to pour into the sink instead.

What to Do After Your New Teeth Are Attached

By the time you receive your final restoration, the hardest part of the dental implant process will already be over. At most, you may need to take some pain medication to deal with sensitive gums. Bleeding and swelling are not normal at this point, so contact us immediately if you notice these or any other unusual symptoms.

Making Oral Hygiene a Priority

If you want to keep gum disease from attacking your soft oral tissues and damaging your dental implants in Canonsburg, you’ll need to stay on top of your oral hygiene routine. This means brushing your teeth twice each day for two full minutes, flossing at least once before going to bed, and rinsing with an ADA-approved mouthwash. This will eliminate bacteria and harmful particles, keeping your smile healthy and free of decay and disease.

Eating a Healthy Diet

There are many advantages to eating healthy foods. Not only will your waistline grow smaller, but you can expect your heart, brain, and other vital organs to benefit as well. Of course, your teeth and gums are not to be left out, as lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, calcium-enriched foods, and leafy greens are known to improve gum health and strengthen tooth enamel. You are certainly free to enjoy a sweet or salty treat now and then, but it’s best to keep these minimal so you don’t put your new teeth at risk of failure.

Breaking Bad Habits

No one said breaking bad habits is easy, but it’s worth it, especially when you invest your time and money into dental implants. Smoking, eating ice, biting your nails, using your teeth as tools, and chewing on pens or pencils can damage your implants and cause harm to your nearby teeth and gums. You’ve already invested much of your money into these permanent prosthetics, so why not do all you can to keep from having to replace them? Commit to giving up your unhealthy habits today once and for all.

Protecting Your Dental Implants

Apart from giving up bad habits, you should also think about ways you can prevent sudden dental emergencies. If you enjoy playing sports or being active outdoors, a customized mouthguard is essential. Your teeth (real and artificial) and your gums can remain safeguarded by a cushion designed specifically for your mouth. Not only does it fit comfortably, but it absorbs excess pressure, preventing many of the most common dental emergencies (i.e., chipped, cracked tooth, knocked-out tooth, soft tissue injury).

These mouthguards are also beneficial if you suffer from bruxism and grind your teeth at night. Stress is a common indicator of bruxism, so why not give your tooth enamel a rest and wear a personalized mouthguard that will better protect your overall smile.

Scheduling Regular Dental Checkups

It is common for dental implant patients to see their dentist at least twice a year for dental checkups and cleanings. You may be required to go more often the first year but no matter the number of visits you’re expected to keep, your implant dentist in Canonsburg wants to ensure the health and future of your smile. By checking for signs of gum disease and decay, we can quickly treat the problems before they negatively impact your dental implants. Not to mention, we’ll also check for any minor or major damage to your implants.

How Long Do Dental Implants Last? 

With proper care and regular checkups, dental implants can easily last for 35 years or more. This is considerably longer than traditional bridges and dentures, which typically have to be replaced every five to 10 years. The lifespan of your dental implants will depend in part on your health and lifestyle. Be sure to brush twice a day, floss daily, and rinse with mouthwash every day to help your implants last. In addition, avoid chewing on hard or sticky foods and never use your artificial teeth as a tool to open packaging.

Do Dental Implants Feel Natural?

Yes. Dental implants are the only tooth replacement solution that restores teeth from the roots up. Once your implants fuse with the surrounding jawbone, they will feel exactly like the roots of your original teeth. Implants themselves have no nerve endings, so any sensations you feel in that area – heat, cold, pressure, etc. – actually come from the gums surrounding the implants.

Are Dental Implants Safe?

In general, dental implants are very safe when placed by a qualified implant dentist in Canonsburg like Dr. Vekariya. To be a candidate for implant treatment, you must have good oral health. If you have low jawbone density or gum disease, we will need to fix these problems first to make dental implant surgery safer and more successful. In addition, certain medical conditions such as diabetes and cancer can make oral surgery riskier. During an initial consultation, be sure to share your medical history and status with Dr. Vekariya so he can adjust your implant treatment plan as appropriate.

Does Getting Dental Implants Hurt?

Rest assured that getting dental implants at Center One Dental is a comfortable, hassle-free experience. Before the procedure begins, Dr. Vekariya will numb your mouth. Moreover, you will most likely be sedated, lowering your body’s ability to register pain. While the surgery shouldn’t hurt, your mouth may be sore for a few days afterward. However, taking prescribed or over-the-counter pain medication as directed should do the trick. You can also hold a cold compress to your face off and on for 10 minutes at a time to reduce any swelling. If your discomfort worsens instead of improving after two or three days, give our office a call right away.  

Will I Have to Take Off Work for Dental Implant Surgery?

Most patients only need to take one, maybe two, days off to get dental implants in Canonsburg. However, if your job is physically demanding, you should probably plan on reserving at least three or four days to stay at home. Heavy exercise could divert blood from the implant site and delay healing. Of course, every case is different, so our team will recommend how many days you should take off based on your unique case.