In contemporary dental prosthetics, metal-ceramic crowns, bridges and dentures, which were once irreplaceable, are now in the past since dental implants appeared. Today, dental implants completely change the philosophy of dentistry, by becoming unavoidable method for the reconstruction of the missing teeth.

In recent years, the number of patients that opt for dental implants instead of basic crowns and bridges is drastically increasing. A few years ago, bridges were preferred, because dental implants could not have been implemented in patient’s jaws if they were lacking bone mass. However, new technologies in oral surgery enabled bone augmentation in atrophied jaws, and so the implants gained advantage over bridges.

Procedure of the implementation of dental implant: Dental implants have three parts:

1) Titanium root which is inserted into jaw bone

2) Suprastructure embedded in titanium root

3) Crown which is put on top of suprastructure

In that way dental implant completely replaces the missing tooth. The implant becomes a replica of the tooth that was once there. Implementation procedure is quite simple. First, we should have an X-ray image of the jaw in order to determine whether there is enough bone mass. If not, bone augmentation has to be done before the implementation. Implementation of dental implants lasts around 30 minutes. Two and a half to three months after the surgery are needed for the dental implant to be completely merged with jaw bone.

After that period, the patient returns to the clinic where titanium suprastructure is embedded and prosthetic compensations are put (crowns or bridges).