6 most frequently asked questions about Zirconia Implants

1. Why choose Metal Free Zirconia Dental Implants?

Smile In Style is a holistic dental practice in Melbourne with two offices in Moonee Ponds and Sunbury.  Recently, we have noticed that there has been a growing awareness of and a move away from people wanting to have metals in their mouths. This could be because of aesthetic reasons as having metals in your mouth are not the same as natural teeth. It may also be because of a growing concern over the dissolution of metals with corrosion into the body.  This could potentially cause damage to biologic systems. As the body is a bit like an electric network with its nervous system, there also lies the potential for differing metals to generate current and influence this system.

2. What materials are Dental Implants made from?

Understanding what dental Implants are made of is important as there are choices for you. Most of the dental implants on the market are made up of titanium. Zirconia is now becoming more popular, as it has more biologically compatible properties than titanium. One implant brand, Straumann also combines titanium and zirconia to make an implant called the Roxolid implant. One of the benefits of the Roxolid implant is that it is 3 times stronger than the conventional titanium implants.

At Smile in Style, we offer the Straumann Roxolid implants and options in Zirconia implants from two suppliers:  Straumann Pure and the Zeramex implant systems.

A big advantage of Zirconia implants is that they are more biocompatible with living tissue and allow better gum health.  This reduces the likelihood of a common cause of implant failure, periimplantitis, which is the infection and bone loss around an implant.

Zeramex Zirconia implant

3. What is the planning process of Zirconia implants?

To ensure accurate implant placement for patients, at Smile in Style, we digitally plan our implant surgery by:

• Firstly, we assess your suitability to have an implant, then if ok we take a 3D cone beam image of your teeth and jaws using our in-house low radiation Cone Beam machine.  This 3D Cone Beam image allows us to check that there are adequate bone levels to place an implant and to accurately plan the implant positioning using our implant software.

Vatech 3D Cone Beam Machine

3D Cone Beam image of the teeth and jaws

• Then we conveniently scan your mouth using our Cerec scanning system and make a 3D digital model of your teeth.

• These 3D digital models and 3D Cone Beam scans of your teeth are imported into our implant planning software to design the implant placement and then print a surgical implant guide.

Precise implant positioning using the implant planning software

• The surgical guide allows us to place the implant in the jaw at the optimum position.
  

Surgical guide

4. How long does the Implant procedure take and what is involved? .

The implant surgery for a single implant can take approximately 1- 2 hours.  With the implant guide made to firmly fit the teeth, all we need to do for the surgery is to open the soft tissue in the gum and place the implant. To do this we use our Dental Laser to expose the bone. Then we use a series of drills from our guided surgery kit to prepare the hole to the correct depth and shape to screw the implant into place. The Dental Laser is used during implant placement to clean out the implant drilling site and disinfecting the site before the implant is placed.  The implant guide ensures that the implant is placed in the same position as planned with the computer software.

After the implant is in place, we use the Dental Laser to shine over the surgery site using low level Laser light.  This helps to accelerate healing and reduce swelling and pain.   Overall, the low-level Laser therapy increases the success rates for the procedure. 

Fotona Dental Laser

5. When can the implant crown/ implant bridge/ implant retained dentures be fitted?

Once your implant has been placed, we will assess your healing one week later.  If you have any sutures, they will be removed at that time using the Dental Laser.  We will also use the Dental Laser to provide you with Low Level Laser Therapy to assist with healing and osseointegration.

Provided you are feeling comfortable, we will wait 3 months before we torque test the implant to see if it has integrated into the bone solidly.

Then after 3 – 6 months, when the implant has integrated with your bone, we would have you return to us to have your implant crown, implant bridge or implant retained denture made. For all of these, we use our Cerec Omnicam to image the tissues to produce the final product. If you are having an implant bridge or implant denture, the design and production are outsourced to a laboratory via a file transferred over the internet, for construction.

For single unit crowns we are able design the crowns and abutments on our Cerec Omnicams.  Then using long lasting, biocompatible porcelain we can mill and fire/stain the components in our oven for the correct colour and strength, ready to insert in your mouth on the implant.

CEREC Omnicam and implant crown design

6. What is the home care routine after Implant placement?

We recommend you maintain good personal oral hygiene using a soft toothbrush, to brush twice a day and floss daily. Then six-monthly visits to see our hygienist and dentist for regular checks are recommended to ensure the success of your implant.

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