Dental implants have revolutionized dentistry in the last 40 years, improving the quality of life for many people. They replace the original teeth, looking, feeling and functioning like the natural ones.
People who have lost teeth can, thanks to implants, eat anything, maintaining the natural appearance of their mouth and the facial aesthetics.
What are dental implants?
Dental implants are small screws with external and internal threads, made of a titanium alloy. Titanium is a biocompatible metal, its main characteristic is the capacity for osseointegration with the tissues, that is, the direct union with the bone once placed. This biological process takes between 2 and 3 months under normal conditions. It will thus become a solid anchor on which the dental prosthesis, in other words, the tooth, can later be fixed.
The placement of the dental implant is the only way to avoid the atrophic degeneration that occurs in the bone once the tooth has been extracted. At Clínica Barroso we will always look for the treatment alternative that allows us to minimize the invasiveness of the procedure and at the same time achieve the best possible result.
What is minimally invasive surgery?
Minimally invasive surgery consists of performing surgery (placement of dental implants, bone or gum grafts, extractions, etc.) with minimal manipulation of the tissues, reducing the extent of the incisions or even performing surgeries without the use of a scalpel.
What are the benefits of minimally invasive surgery?
Mainly to have a milder postoperative period, with less inflammation, bruising and less discomfort associated with tissue healing. In addition, by being more gentle with the manipulation of the tissues, it is more difficult to have post-operative complications such as infections or bleeding. In many cases, the implementation of this type of technique also leads to significantly reduce the total treatment times, reducing the number of visits to carry out the treatment.
Dental implant placement in the upper central incisor without the use of a scalpel.
Advances in surgery: Immediate loading
In some cases, it will be possible to place the implant on the same day of the tooth extraction, thus reducing the number of interventions. Advances in the macro design of implants will allow us to put the dental prosthesis on the implant on the same day, thus providing a fixed temporary prosthesis from the moment that the tooth is removed, solving the aesthetic problem in a single day. It is what is called immediate loading or immediate aesthetics.
At Clínica Barroso we are specialists in minimally invasive surgery techniques. Dr Albert Barroso has carried out different research studies on these types of techniques. He has focused part of his time on research work on immediate implantology. These techniques allow us to place the implants without using the scalpel, and therefore, without the need for stitches. By less tissue manipulation, post-operative inflammation and associated discomfort are much less. Thus, in a single intervention, we can replace the hopeless tooth with a new (provisional) fixed one, maintaining the aesthetics at all times and avoiding the use of uncomfortable removable devices. In one of the scientific publications of Dr. Albert Barroso shows that patient satisfaction is much higher with the implementation of this type of protocol in dental implantology***.
*** Barroso-Panella A., Ortiz-Puigpelat O., Altuna-Fistolera P., Lucas-Taulé E., Hernández-Alfaro F., Gargallo-Albiol J. Evaluation of periimplant tissue stability and patient's satisfaction after immediate implant placement in the aesthetic area. A 3-year follow-up study of an on-going prospective study. Int JPeriodontics Restorative Dent 2020.
Replacement of a fractured tooth with a dental implant. Clinical appearance after 5 years.