Looking for a highly effective way to restore your smile after tooth loss? You can find comprehensive dental restoration when you replace missing teeth with dental implants. These fixed prosthetic teeth offer thorough and lasting benefits that you can trust will help your specific dental needs.
Once implants are in place in your mouth, you cannot remove them without help from your dentist. So though you experience many advantages with this treatment, you might worry about how these fixtures will impact future dental work.
You can still get the oral health care that you need when you have dental implants, but your dentist might need to adjust their approach. Read on to learn more about the dental care you can receive after tooth replacement with implant dentistry.
Can I Whiten a Dental Implant?
Many people desire a pearly white smile, and a dentist can offer professional teeth whitening services that can brighten your tooth color. However, dentists will recommend that patients seek teeth whitening treatment prior to implant dentistry.
Dental implants feature prosthetic teeth that will resist staining and give a patient a beautiful and natural-looking smile. But these fixtures will not respond to the bleaching ingredients that lift and remove stains from natural teeth.
A dentist can work around your dental implants though if you want to use teeth whitening to enhance the tooth color of surrounding teeth. But if you want to brighten the color of a dental implant, you will need a replacement for the prosthetic. So for an even finish when it comes to teeth whitening, pursue this treatment prior to implant dentistry.
Can I Straighten Teeth After Receiving a Dental Implant?
Dental implants offer reliable and durable tooth replacement thanks to their solid foundation via a titanium post anchor surgically placed in the jaw. The anchor fuses with the bone in the jaw as you heal, ensuring permanent and lasting placement for your implant.
Once this fusion takes place, the implant cannot move. So if you want to straighten your teeth, you should do so before you receive dental implants. Implants will not move as your natural teeth will with Invisalign or other orthodontic solutions.
Your dentist might refer you to an orthodontist who can help to align teeth around a dental implant if needed. But for optimal results, you should seek teeth straightening treatment before this type of tooth replacement.
What If I Get a Cavity Near a Dental Implant?
Most people will develop a cavity in their lifetime. And a dentist can easily treat most cases of this early form of tooth decay using a dental filling. If you get a cavity near a dental implant, your dentist can still treat the issue as they normally would.
The implant cannot form decay, but the surrounding teeth might. If the cavity develops too close to the implant, the dentist might need to remove the prosthetic tooth to reach the decay. They then replace the implant in this same appointment, and it will function just as well as before cavity treatment.