If your dentist has told you that you don’t have enough bone left in your jaw for dental implants, in Harley Street you may well find that there are ways to solve this problem and give you the implants you want. Here at Harley Street Dental Clinic, we have methods to restore the bone in the jaw that can be used before dental implant surgery.
What’s so important about the jawbone?
It might seem a bit odd to get turned down for dental implants because of your jawbone; after all, for you it’s the teeth that are the issue, not the bone. But actually, what makes dental implants in Harley Street so effective is that they are anchored into the jawbone. Being firmly embedded into the jawbone is what makes them stable and secure enough to chew steaks and bite into apples.
What goes wrong with the jawbone
The trouble is that if you have been missing teeth for a while, or if you have had gum disease, your jawbone may well not be what it once was. The jawbone needs to be constantly stimulated by little tremors coming down through the tooth roots every time the teeth come together. These vibrations act as a signal to the bone cells to renew themselves as the bone is still in use. When there are no tremors, the bone cells not only stop renewing themselves, they actually start to dissolve, releasing the apparently no-longer-needed nutrients back into the bloodstream. The result for you is that your jawbone starts to shrink, and to lose its density. Trying to anchor a dental implant into a bone like that is like trying to anchor it into that green oasis stuff people use in flower arrangements. It crumbles at the smallest stress.
How we can fix your jawbone
We can prepare your jaw for dental implants in Harley Street either by giving you a bone graft, packing bone material into your jaw, or by giving you a sinus lift, putting new bone material into the enlarged sinus cavities on the upper jaw. It does add extra weeks to the implant process, but it’s worth it if you want restorations that act like natural teeth.