Health Alert: Dental implants

Health Alert: Dental implants
March 29, 20-05
By BrettWitt
WIStv.com
(National-NBC) March 29, 2005 - No matter how well you take care of your teeth, and many of us don't, millions of Americans will end up in the dentist office. Maureen Woodroffe is a dental implant patient, "It seems as I am getting older, my teeth are falling apart, and they're kind of falling apart all at once."
What Maureen and a growing number of patients are choosing to replace their teeth is something called dental implants. Dr. Steven Schwartz is an oral surgeon, "The best way to think of implants are artificial tooth roots. And then we use that as a foundation so we can do single tooth or multiple teeth or stabilizing dentures."
Schwartz says before an implant can withstand the intense force of chewing, bone has to grow up to and around the implant to anchor it, and even with newer implants that takes awhile, "In many cases, it can be as short as eight weeks or two months given the particular situation."
An implant just approved by the FDA uses a new way to get the bone to anchor the implant even sooner. Like many implants, the surface is roughened so bone has something to grab onto. Schwartz says what's new is that the titanium surface is coated with fluoride, a bone stimulating element. As tiny amounts of fluoride are released, bone cells are induced grow up to and around the implant much more quickly than before, "There's probably a 30 to 50 percent increase in the rate of healing and bone bonding to the implants. So what it boils down to is your implant will heal faster, and it actually will be a bit stronger."
Implants are quite a bit more expensive than full dentures or a bridge, because they often require more procedures or more time in the chair. Still, they are as close as you can get to real teeth and the fluoride implant means you can get back to chewing sooner.