Remember those little boys in Oliver! Singing about hot sausage and mustard, peas pudding and saveloys, and the joys of indigestion when you can eat what you like? That’s a bit how it can be if you have just lost one or more teeth, and, with them, your freedom of choice around eating.

Chewy food (toffees, steak), crunchy food (apples, carrots), gloopy foods (nut butters), bitty foods (seeds and nuts) – the list is long. Not being able to eat these things can be severely restrictive for some people. Fortunately, there’s a wonderful solution that can give you back your varied diet, and we have it on hand here at Orpington Dental Care in Orpington-dental implants!

In Orpington, dental implants allow a more varied diet than dentures and other artificial teeth because they replace the root as well as the crown of the tooth. The replacement root is a titanium post that we insert into the jawbone under local anaesthetic. Some anxious patients also choose to receive sedation during this procedure.

The implant becomes a stable and fixed feature in the jawbone, just like a natural root, over the following weeks to months. This is because the titanium from which it is made is able to fuse with bone tissue. When bone and post become one, it creates a stable chewing base. Also, because the titanium catalyses bone growth, the jawbone remains full and strong, and you can avoid sunken aged look often acquired by denture wearers as their jawbones lose density.

Once this integration period is completed, you can come back to us for the remaining part of your dental implants in Orpington. During this appointment, we will fit an abutment into the post. An abutment is an internal screw. It is onto this that your new artificial crown is fitted.

Your crowns are custom-made to blend in with your natural teeth. The material used is porcelain and this comes in a range of shades to match the colour of the surrounding teeth. Because tooth shape and size is also important, technicians are specially trained to hand craft teeth to match impressions or photographs of your natural teeth.

Come in for a consultation today to find out more about how dental implants in Orpington could brighten up your smile.