Dental implants have gradually emerged as a predictable and reliable replacement for missing teeth. Their long-term success rates have made dental implants the treatment of choice to replace a single tooth, multiple teeth, or even all the teeth you once had.
Dental implants can reverse both functional and aesthetic losses caused by the extraction of natural teeth. They can give you your smile and your chewing power back. No wonder that dental implants are growing more popular by the day, and even patients who once opted for crowns, bridges, or even removable dentures start wondering if they could be the right candidate for dental implants — sometimes even years after a tooth was initially extracted.
How soon after losing a tooth can you get dental implant treatment?
With the advances in treatment protocols and a better understanding of how the bone reacts and remodels after the extraction of natural teeth, implant treatment can be offered at any time after the removal of teeth. There are, however, some limitations.
At what age was the tooth removed?
As a general rule, there is no upper age limit for getting implant surgery, provided that the patient has good overall health and is free of detrimental habits.
However, there are cases when young adolescents suffer tooth loss due to trauma while playing contact sports, or having other accidents. Children and teenagers may lose their permanent molars and premolars to cavities caused by improper brushing techniques and poor oral hygiene.
In such cases, it is advisable to wait until the age of approximately 18 years, irrespective of when the tooth was extracted. Adolescents should wait until this age to receive dental implants because the growth of the bone would have been fully complete and jaws would have fully developed by this age — offering a better chance that the dental implant will successfully serve them for a long time to come.
Immediate dental implants: What do you need to know?
Dental implants placed in the same sitting during which the tooth was extracted — or within two weeks of extraction — are known as immediate implants.
If there is an active infection, it can prevent the fusion of the dental implant with the surrounding bone, leading to implant failure. In such cases, the tooth is first extracted, and the extraction socket is thoroughly cleaned. The patient is prescribed antibiotics to clear the infection up. The implant surgery is carried out once the lesion is healed and healthy bone is available at the surgery site. It may take up to four to six months before adequate healing is seen. These are called delayed implants.
Benefits of immediate dental implants
When dental implants are placed immediately after the extraction of natural teeth, the quick timing of the procedure minimizes the loss of bone around the site, thus providing great functional and aesthetic outcomes. Patients tolerate this procedure very well, as they can avoid multiple surgeries, and more importantly, they can avoid the inconvenience of having to wait for a few months to get a replacement tooth.
Is it ever too late to get a dental implant?
Fear of surgeries and pain is often a reason why patients opt for other options like tooth-supported fixed bridges, or removable dentures. However, neither can provide the comfort and longevity of a well-placed implant-supported prosthesis.
Over time, the jaw bone starts remodeling and dissolving, and the patient might feel that there won’t be enough bone to support the implants. In other cases, a patient might feel that they are "too old" to undergo surgery, or that they waited too long, and avoid getting the treatment.
With advances in bone regeneration and augmentation techniques, it is now possible to reconstruct and gain a significant amount of bone prior to placing dental implants. This means patients with a lot of bone loss at their sites of tooth loss can undergo successful dental implant treatment, including often patients who previously could not be treated with implants, as dental surgery techniques have advanced.
In cases where there is severe bone loss due to trauma, or a part of the jaw has to be removed surgically due to carcinomas, conventional implants might not work due to inadequate bone support. In such cases, basal implants or zygomatic implants are used to get support from the deeper and stronger bone.
The fact that patients may often still receive dental implants even if some time has passed since their teeth were initially extracted could also prove to be good news for people who had a tooth or multiple teeth removed just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As lockdowns were implemented everywhere, these patients may have had to delay receiving dental treatment, including implant procedures. The short answer here is that you will still be able to get your dental implants as quarantines finish and dental offices open again for non-emergency appointments.
Bone augmenting procedures
As soon as the natural tooth is extracted, the bone around it starts remodeling. This process is slow but continuous and ultimately results in a jawbone that may have a hard time housing dental implants. In such cases, additional surgeries like sinus lift, ridge split, or bone grafting need to be carried out in to gain adequate bony support for the implant.