Dental Implant Temporary Tooth

Dental Implant Temporary Tooth

If you are about to replace a diseased tooth with a dental implant, your dentist will have explained to you that you will need to wear a temporary prosthesis after the surgery. This device can be a capsule, a bridge, or a full denture, depending on the number of teeth you need to replace. After a certain period (4-6 months), the temporary tooth or teeth will be replaced by the definitive prosthesis, i.e., the one that will remain fixed on your implants for years.

But what exactly is the temporary tooth for? There are 5 essential functions that this device covers:

* Guide the integration of implants in immediate loading. For an implant to integrate properly into your bone (osseointegration), it needs to be stable within it. It’s a bit like breaking an arm: if we don’t block the 2 fractured ends, the bone will never heal. The same thing also applies to dental implants. If they continue to move under the pressure of chewing, they will never be able to weld well inside the bone. Temporary prostheses, especially extended ones such as the Toronto Bridge, create a kind of single block that both favors the stability of each single implant; and prevents deleterious movements for their integration. Basically, when you talk, chew or swallow, these temporaries prevent the artificial roots from “dancing”, helping them to integrate into the bone.

* Promote bone calcification. Let’s an example of a broken arm. When the bone heals, you need to do some physical therapy before heading back to the gym to lift weights. Temporary dentures have the same function as exercises that accustom the arm to perform the movements it did before breaking. In fact, they are composed of a soft and elastic resin-composite material, which gently distributes the chewing force around the dental implant. This allows the bone that encompasses the implant to gradually thicken and calcify, just as physical therapy does after a fracture. Thus, when it is time to put on the final prosthesis – which is made of a more rigid material – the bone will be able to better tolerate the increased chewing load.

* Guide soft tissue healing. Temporary prostheses are also valuable because they guide the gum so that it retains its original appearance. When a tooth is taken out, a hole forms that closes in a linear fashion. The gum flattens and does not maintain its typical scalloped (U) shape. As a result, when you then place the implant, the crown on it will rest on something flat, making your tooth look too big. This is not aesthetically pleasing, especially if the tooth is in the front of your mouth. On the contrary, if after the extraction you immediately put a temporary tooth, the gum has something concrete to adhere to , so it manages to keep its initial appearance.

* Accustom the patient to the final prosthesis. When you lose 1 or more teeth, all the structures around the hole you created adapt to the new space. For example, the cheek muscle tends to take up more space and the tongue feels free to stretch out and occupy that position. What happens if after 1-3 years without a tooth, your dentist immediately puts a permanent one of the same size as the previous one? The cheek and tongue will feel a strong sense of discomfort. After years of these soft tissues getting used to being free, they now feel trapped, making you feel something abnormal, as well as discomfort in chewing. Using a provisional this problem does not exist. Because? First you put on a very small temporary device and then – over the months – it gets bigger and bigger until it reaches the size of your future definitive tooth. In this way, your tongue and cheek are able to adapt to the size of the new teeth and so you too will gladly accept the new structures in the mouth.

* Promote doctor-patient communication. In our dental office we design patients’ smiles using a fully digital system, which allows us to precisely identify the ideal appearance of their future teeth. However, each patient has a unique self-image, which may be different from the aesthetic standards we have identified on the computer. In this sense, the provisional prosthesis on implants proves to be a valid communication tool between doctor and patient. When you wear it, in fact, you can check for yourself if you really like the look of the ideal teeth we have designed. If they don’t convince you, you can tell us all the changes you want, from the shape to the color, to the position within your smile.

When you are satisfied with the result, we create your definitive prosthesis by finding a compromise between functional needs and the aesthetic ones that you yourself have suggested.

Furthermore, whenever possible, we make changes directly on the temporary, so you can immediately understand if the teeth you had in mind really feel “yours”.