Dental implants provide artificial tooth "roots" on which single teeth, multiple teeth, or full dentures can be supported. They can be made to look, function, and feel like natural teeth. Dental implants help maintain the presence and structure of bone and provide the skeletal underpinnings of facial structure. Dental Implants allow a person to eat, speak, and function naturally and youthfully.

Mostly typically, root-form implants made of surgical quality titanium are placed in the jaw. The bone forms both a chemical and mechanical bond with the implant fixture. Though different from the bond between a tooth and the surrounding bone in a natural relationship, this relationship has many similarities, including the ability for such a relationship to exist in a physiologically compatible situation for decades. Once a dental implant has "integrated" into the bone, the implant can restored to look like a natural tooth or form part of the foundation for a fixed or removable denture.

Though small "mini" implants are widely advertised as lower-cost alternatives to root-form implants, these implants have limited long-term application, and though sometimes inappropriately marketed as a substitute for more expensive and robust root-form implants, these implants should be considered at best, temporary solutions, or adjunctive solutions to larger and more predictable root-form implants.

In the past, "sub-periosteal" dental implants have been placed under the gums, on top of the bone. These implants have provided for many patients, a relatively stable long-term platform for restoring dental function and appearance, they have largely fallen away as a commonly used-treatment approach because, once again, they do not have the long term predictability that has come with the advent and improvements in root-form dental implants.

• Esthetic: A tooth replaced with a root-form dental implant looks, acts, and feels like natural teeth.
• Maintenance of Natural Tooth Structure: A tooth replaced with a a root-form dental implant preserves natural tooth structure since adjacent teeth do not need to be altered.
• Maintenance of bone dimension of the jaws: When a root-form dental implant is placed in the jaw, the loss of the thickness and height of the jaw structure that is typically lost when a tooth is lost, is prevented or minimized.
• Very reliable: In nonsmokers, a root-form dental implant are about 94% successful long-term.
• Comfort: Root-form dental implants act and can be made to look like natural teeth.
• Stability: With fixed or removable dentures supported by root-form dental implants normal speaking, chewing, and appearance can be accomplished without the diminished function or ability associated with these kinds of restorations absent implant support.
• Confidence: Removable full or partial dentures supported on implants can be securely "clipped" or anchored into place completely eliminating concerns over loss of adhesion, dropping or lifting of the prosthesis.

Ideally, anyone with good general and good periodontal/oral health can be a candidate for implant placement. There is no necessary age limitation after full-growth is achieved (16-18 years of age for women, 18-23 years of age for men).

First, Dr. Newhouse has been placing implants for over 20 years. She takes great care in making sure each implant is placed where the teeth should be, and in a manner that is predictable and restorable. That takes care and preparation for each patient and each implant. Because periodontists have great experience in managing soft tissues, the "picture frame" around where implants are to be placed is maintained, so that individual implants when restored, emerge from the soft tissue, much as a natural tooth would. Dr. Newhouse works closely with excellent restorative dentists to make sure that the resulting crown/denture looks good and functions well. Once implants are placed and restored, Dr. Newhouse and her staff will teach you how to maintain your implant and implant prosthesis, and check it periodically so that it can last a lifetime!