Dental Implants New York
Rebuilding Your Smile with a Permanent Solution
Dental implants provide a better quality of life for people with missing teeth, serving as one step to improving oral health. This popular procedure can replace ill-fitting dentures with a more permanent, effective, and beneficial solution many dentists trust and support. They’re also a healthier and longer-lasting solution than dental bridges and partials. Lux Smiles helps patients improve their confidence and happiness by providing a smile that can last a lifetime with dental implants in New York. To discover how this revolutionary treatment can improve your well-being, call us today to schedule your consultation.
Why Choose Lux Dental For Dental Implants?
- #1 Entire Dental Implant Procedure Completed Under 1 Roof
- #2 Team of 2 Highly Experienced Dentists with Advanced Training
- #3 Permanently Replace Any Number of Missing Teeth
What Are Dental Implants?
A dental implant is a small titanium post that can be inserted into your jawbone. Titanium is used for various medical procedures such as hip replacements because of its biocompatible nature. Once the dental implant is in the jawbone, the surrounding tissue will integrate with it and hold it firmly in place. This creates the foundation for your new smile, literally replacing the roots of the tooth that has been lost.
Dental implants ca be placed anywhere along the dental arch, and they can be used to support all manner of custom-made restorations depending on how many teeth you’re missing. Your crown, bridge, or denture will be carefully designed to match the rest of your aesthetic for seamlessly realist results. The steadfast foundation plus the high-quality restoration makes for results that look, feel, and function just like a natural tooth.
The Process of Getting Dental Implants
Dental implant treatment can take between 6-12 months depending on the patient. Treatment involves a few different treatment stages. If you’re wondering what to expect, here’s a breakdown of what happens when you get dental implants in New York from Lux Smiles.
- Initial implant consultation – Your first step to a complete smile is having your initial consultation to ensure you’re a candidate for dental implants. Besides a visual examination, Dr. Khalife and Dr. Leonettie will also need X-rays and other images, like from a CT scan. This gives us a complete picture of your oral health to ensure dental implants are right for you. We’ll also use the information to create a customized treatment plan, including any necessary preliminary treatments.
- Dental implant surgery – Once you’re approved for implants we will set up your dental implant surgery. Before your treatment begins, our team will clean and numb your mouth. Then, Dr. Leonetti will create an opening in your gums and jawbone. The dental implant will be placed in this area. Once in place, Dr. Leonetti will clean and suture the area. He will repeat this process if you’re getting multiple dental implants.
- Healing and osseointegration – Once your dental implants are placed, you’ll be sent home to heal and recover. It will take about 1-2 weeks to heal from your initial dental implant surgery. We will give you some instructions to follow as you heal. Make sure to adhere to these steps for a fast, pain-free recovery process. After about two weeks, your mouth will feel pretty much normal. However, it will usually take between 3-6 months for your dental implants to fully bond with your jawbone. This is a process called “osseointegration.” During this time, you’ll come back to our office for a few checkups so that we can check on your progress and start building your dental implant restoration.
- Implant restoration placement – Once your mouth has fully healed, you’ll come back for a quick treatment to get an “abutment” placed on your dental implant post. This is a small piece of metal that allows your dental implant post to connect to a restoration, such as a dental crown. Then, once your mouth heals, you’ll come back to Lux Smiles. At your last appointment, Dr. Leonetti will begin by checking the fit of your dental crown or other implant restoration, ensuring that it fits into your mouth perfectly. If everything looks good, he will bond the restoration to your dental implant permanently. Then, you’ll be sent home to enjoy your newly restored smile.
Getting a dental implant does take a while, but it’s worth the investment. Dental implants last longer than any other type of false tooth, and they look and feel completely natural. For more information about what to expect from the dental implant treatment process, we recommend scheduling a consultation at Lux Smiles.
Same-Day Dental Implant Options
Are same-day dental implants possible? Yes, in some cases, but it depends on the health of a patient’s bone structure. Eligible candidates will receive what is also known as immediate implant placement, while others who do not qualify receive delayed implant placement. This delay can occur between three to six months after the extraction appointment and often is because the bone needs to rebuild, or a severe infection is present.
You can determine if you will need to have immediate or delayed implant placement following your initial dental implant consultation appointment.
Benefits of Dental Implants
Some patients require just one replacement tooth, while others will receive a complete set of teeth. Regardless, there are many positives to obtaining dental implants such as:
- Combat bone loss by stimulating tooth roots in the jawbone
- Natural-looking and beautiful appearance of teeth
- Increased confidence levels with a lovely smile
- Most successful tooth replacement option
- Requires no adhesive application
- Ability to eat any foods the patient desires
- No difficulty speaking
Who Dental Implants Can Help
Dental implants are considered one of the most versatile tooth replacement solutions available. Why? Because whether you are missing one tooth or an entire arch, dental implants can easily restore your smile and improve your oral health. Requiring no altering of your healthy, natural teeth, dental implants are composed of titanium posts, metal abutments, and a custom-made restoration. Depending on the number of teeth missing, your cost for treatment can be much lower with a single tooth dental implant or average a bit higher with an implant bridge or implant dentures.
Missing 1 Tooth
A single tooth can easily be replaced with a single dental implant. We will simply place the implant where the roots of the missing tooth once were. Then, it will be covered with a custom-made dental crown designed to fit in with the rest of your natural teeth. This is a much better option than a traditional dental bridge, which requires altering and weakening the neighboring teeth to support it.
Missing Multiple Teeth
Traditional bridges are also used to replace multiple consecutive missing teeth. However, they involve reshaping healthy teeth to make room for and anchor a new bridge. Flossing is difficult with bridges, and bridge pressure sometimes results in gaps that allow bacteria and decay to get through. Dental implant patients experience far fewer issues than those with bridges because of their natural-like placement.
Missing All Teeth
Dental implants are so effective that dentists can install them to support dentures or overdentures. Missing teeth contribute to bone loss which only worsens with ill-fitting dentures that shift and shuffle. Dental implants stop bone loss and do not slide around loosely.
Understanding the Cost of Dental Implants
At Lux Smiles, Dr. Leonetti and our team never want the cost of dental care to stop you from getting the treatment you need. That’s why we offer a variety of financing plans for our dental patients in the Flatiron District, NoHo, and the nearby areas. You can split the cost of your treatment into monthly payments, restore your smile, and pay for your dental implants over time.
Maintaining & Caring for Your Dental Implants
Once dentists place implants into the patient’s mouth, the work is not necessarily over. It is up to the patient to invest in their oral health by regularly brushing and flossing. An artificial tooth requires the same careful maintenance as a regular tooth, so it needs daily cleaning and attention.
Neglecting these crucial aftercare tasks can cause jaw swelling, pain, a receding jawbone, and idle bacteria.
Dental Implant FAQs
Does It Hurt to Get Dental Implants?
No. During the dental implant process, you will not feel any pain or discomfort at all. Dental implants are actually much less invasive than some other comparable treatments like tooth extractions and cause minimal trauma to your gums and jawbone.
At Lux Smiles, we use the latest surgical techniques to ensure that we can provide minimally invasive dental implant treatment in NYC. During your treatment, Dr. Leonetti will also carefully numb your mouth to ensure you don’t feel any pain or discomfort. We also offer nitrous oxide sedation (laughing gas) for patients who may need a little more help feeling safe, calm, and comfortable during their dental implant surgery at Lux Smiles.
After your appointment at Lux Smiles, your sedation and numbing will wear off, and you may experience a bit of pain and discomfort. This is completely normal. Dr. Leonetti will provide you with instructions on how to care for your smile and minimize discomfort as you heal.
Icing the area, taking over-the-counter pain medication, and other such steps can help you feel better after your implant surgery. Most patients will feel minimal discomfort, which will go away within just a few days.
How Long Does It Take to Fully Recover from Dental Implant Surgery?
Most patients will need about two weeks to fully recover from dental implant surgery. However, it’s usually possible to get back to your daily routine within just a day after your dental implant placement surgery in New York City. That means you don’t have to worry about any significant downtime and can get back to work or school right away.
During your recovery period, you’ll need to follow some instructions provided to you by Dr. Leonetti. For example, you’ll need to avoid brushing the implant directly for a while, eat a diet of mostly soft foods, and avoid heavy exercise for at least a few days. You should also not smoke for at least a week. Ideally, you should quit smoking altogether.
Your mouth will be almost fully healed within two weeks, and you should be able to get back to eating all of your favorite foods by then. At this time, you may also need to come back to Lux Smiles for a consultation with Dr. Leonetti. He’ll check on your recovery progress and make sure that everything looks good.