When a patient loses his teeth, he becomes an oral amputee. His oral function gets impaired with the loss of the teeth either if it is one tooth or multiple teeth missing, his overall function gets impaired. His mastication gets impaired if the loss of the tooth is the back one. The aesthetics or the looks gets impaired if the loss tooth is the front one. It is really essential to get the replacement as the earliest, otherwise it just damages the adjacent teeth, or the bone from which the tooth has been extracted. Many patients ask me which is the best option to replace the teeth, whether it is a dental implant or a bridge. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Implants have gained its popularity because of advanced technology and the science, the major advantage of implant is to replace a tooth, we don’t have to sacrifice the important tooth structure, that is the enamel, in a dental implant the tooth we are going to place a titanium cylinder which integrates with the bone structure and once the integration has taken place, we give a crown over that. So there is no chance of touching the adjacent teeth for the replacement of the teeth. Second is your oral hygiene is always better with dental implants, hence the reason why we don’t connect the implant like a bridge to replace all treatment if the one tooth. In case of the bridge for the replacement of one tooth we cut the adjacent teeth and by taking the support of the adjacent tooth, we give a bridge. So the minimum will be a 3 unit for the replacement for the one tooth, hence at the oral hygiene becomes compromise. Otherwise esthetically the dental implant looks more natural or beautiful and definitely it a smile enhanced compared to a dental bridge. Major advantage of dental implant is preservation of bone as the patient loses the toot the major drawback is the patient also loses bon structure also with the implant, we are utilising the bone and we are minimising the bone resorption.
