DENTAL CARE

Q:I

Can Help You Now. A: Frequently I start this column with a comment or a quote from a patient. Other times, the title is my own words. Our subject today will revolve around the latter. For those of you who read and listen carefully will note that I have a seemingly extra word at the end of my statement. I could have said, “I can help you.” I added the term “now.” There is an implication in that word. It means that before a particular point in time, I was unable to offer services to my patient. With time, that has changed, and I can provide services to solve a problem. Please allow me to explain the circumstances surrounding this with a little background. Many patients seek dental care to replace or preserve their remaining teeth. Others are frustrated with removable teeth as they struggle to learn how to function with these replacement teeth. There is a large population of patients who are excellent denture wearers. For others, the experience can be unpleasant and frustrating. All of these types of patients have one thing in common. They are looking for a more permanent solution to their problem. They seek a solution that can be put on cruise control. After all, this is the dawn of the era of the self-driving car. Set it and forget is very appealing. When we come to teeth, “set it and forget it” applies to dental implants. Privately and at the university, I teach doctors the required skills to add dental implants to their practices. It ranks next to whitening as one of the most sought after procedures in dentistry today. Unfortunately, not everyone is a candidate for this excellent procedure. There can be a variety of reasons as to why this is so. I want to focus our discussion on one in particular. That reason is the lack of supporting bone. The term that dentists use when talking to a patient is “enough bone.” If you don’t have sufficient height and width of bone, then an implant will not work for you. Over 25 years ago, that magic number for bone was a larger one. The required amount of bone was a function of the science at the time and the design of dental implants. Doctors felt that dental implants need to mimic the roots of natural teeth. Our teeth have long roots, and therefore, dental implants should be as long as teeth roots. Science and many studies learned that we could accomplish the same result as our teeth if we varied the shape and surfaces of the dental implant. As time progressed, dental implants got shorter and better. What did we do in the past if the bone was inadequate? Before the implant procedure, we performed demanding and sometimes elababorate bone grafting procedures. This additional step added to the length of treatment and increased the number of procedures to reach our goal. Now, I can often skip that step because of the lessened need for longer implants. My favorite implant company just came out with an ultra-short dental implant. This new shape allows me to avoid sinus grafting and create a tooth for my patient, sooner and simpler than before. Now you know the meaning of “now,” too.

If you visited a dentist in the past and a dental implant procedure rejected due to the lack of proper bone in the jaw, maybe it’s time to revisit the situation. New designs open up the possibilities for you to reach the “set it and forget it” status for your mouth. Please call us at 440.951.7856, and let’s talk about your unique desires and needs. I wish all of you a wonderful holiday weekend. Jeffrey Gross, DDS, FAGD is an Ohio licensed general dentist and is on the staff of Case Western Reserve School of Dental Medicine.