Dental Implants – Gainesville, FL

Initial Dental Implant Consultation

The first step toward enjoying a complete smile with dental implants is to schedule a consultation with Dr. Nossa. This appointment gives him an opportunity to ask you about your medical history as well as the specific goals you have in mind for your future smile. He can also walk you through the treatment process, so if you still have questions about how dental implants work in Gainesville, this would be the perfect time to ask!

Next, Dr. Nossa closely examines your mouth, jaw, and other oral structures using his highly trained eyes as well as detailed X-rays. If he determines that you’re a good candidate for dental implants right away, then you can schedule your surgery. However, many patients must undergo one or more preparatory procedures before their mouths are ready to support implants. These include tooth extractions, periodontal therapy, or bone grafting to fortify a jawbone that has weakened after tooth loss.

Dental Implant Surgery

Once all of your preliminary treatments are completed, you’ll be ready for dental implant surgery. Thanks to Dr. Nossa’s advanced training, he can perform this procedure right here in our office! Not only does this make your treatment more convenient and affordable overall, but it eliminates the risk of miscommunication between multiple doctors and offices.

Dental implant surgery is a relatively straightforward procedure. You shouldn’t even feel pain because of the incredibly effective local anesthesia and sedation our team uses. After numbing your mouth, Dr. Nossa makes tiny incisions in your gums and inserts the implant posts at specific locations in your jawbone that were determined based on the images we took during your consultation. Then, he sutures your gums closed and you can begin healing.

Dental Implant Osseointegration & Abutment

The main reason why dental implants in Gainesville are so successful is a process called osseointegration. Over the next several months (three to six on average), the biocompatible implant posts encourage the jawbone to grow around it, forging a foundation that can support any number of replacement teeth for decades to come.

When your mouth and jaw have fully healed, you’re ready to receive your abutments, which are metal fixtures that support a dental crown, bridge, or denture. During a brief surgical procedure, Dr. Nossa places the abutments on top of your implants and stitches the gums closed around them. Once your gums have healed around the abutments (which takes a couple of weeks), your gumline will look completely natural.

Delivery of Dental Implant Restoration(s)

After you heal from your abutment surgery, it’s time for the moment you’ve been waiting for – getting your brand-new teeth! The crowns, bridges, or dentures that Dr. Nossa places onto your abutments are customized to complement your facial features and mimic your natural pearly whites. Once your restorations are in place, you can count on your new smile to last for 30+ years with the right care.

Day-to-Day Benefits

• Stronger bite: Without a tooth root, the jawbone cannot receive the stimulation it needs to maintain its fullest biting force possible. Once a dental implant replaces the root, you can eat all the foods you previously enjoyed as if your teeth were never missing to begin with, even tough and crunchy foods like steak, nuts, and apples!
• The best aesthetics possible: Implants also offer enhanced aesthetics by using all-porcelain crowns to replace teeth, ensuring no one can tell the difference between your existing teeth and your implant. Only you and our office will know that you had them placed while everyone else is wowed by your dazzling smile!
• Simple at-home oral hygiene: Brushing and flossing your dental implants feel virtually no different compared to your natural teeth. To keep it healthy, brush twice a day and floss at least once a day.

Health Benefits

• Prevent future tooth loss: When a tooth is lost, the risk of future teeth falling out only goes up. This is largely because the foundation that teeth rely on (the bone tissue) to remain stable only begins to atrophy and break down further the longer you go without replacement.
• Keep healthy teeth in place: Another common side effect of long-term tooth loss is dental drift, a phenomenon where remaining teeth begin to shift out of place to compensate for existing gaps. Dental implants prevent this drift, ensuring your bite does not become uneven and lead to issues with teeth grinding or your jaw joints.
• Improve your overall health: Research has shown that having all your teeth can potentially reduce your risk for other systemic health problems, including heart disease. With oral health being just as important as your overall health, dental implants can play an even bigger role in helping you achieve a better quality of life.

Long-Term Benefits

• The strongest tooth replacement available: Dental implants are durable and long-lasting. In fact, they are capable of lasting for as long as 30 years and even the rest of your life when properly maintained. This is significantly longer than other tooth replacement options like dental bridges or dentures, both of which usually need replacement much sooner.
• The most reliable tooth replacement: When placed by a professional, they have success rates as high as 98 percent, even after a 10-year period. That means even after living with them for several years, you can expect them to remain stable, functional, and beautiful.
• Better cost savings: Because dental implants last longer, you can expect to pay lower dental care costs overall on replacement restorations. Even with their higher upfront costs, most patients recognize dental implants are worth it, particularly when combined with their other benefits.

Who Is a Good Candidate for Dental Implants?

Nearly every adult who has good oral health and strong jawbones can be a good candidate for dental implants. During your initial consultation, our team will go over a few considerations to see if a patient is eligible for the procedure, such as:

• Great oral health – Oral complications such as cavities and periodontal disease can be detrimental to dental implants, causing them to fail if left unchecked. That’s why we’ll need to treat any of these issues before moving forward with your procedure.
• Good overall health – Since dental implants involve a minor surgical process, we’ll need you to be healthy enough to manage the procedure and recover properly.
• Sufficient jawbone mass – Dental implants rely on a healthy and strong jawbone to bond with and support them. Without enough bone density, your metal posts may not fuse properly during osseointegration.

Even if you don’t currently meet these requirements, our team can work with you to get you in shape with preliminary treatments such as tooth extractions, bone grafting, and periodontal therapy. Once you’re ready, we can move forward with getting you your dental implants! 

Missing One Tooth

Those wanting to replace a single tooth with dental implants will only need one titanium post and a single porcelain crown. Dental implants typically use porcelain to create the most natural appearance possible. The crown and implant are attached via an abutment, which provides a stable foundation for regular use.

Missing Multiple Teeth

Replacing multiple consecutive teeth is as simple as creating a restoration designed to fit two implants. Instead of relying on neighboring teeth to hold the bridge like it would traditionally, an implant on either side can easily hold a bridge designed to replace three to four teeth at a time.

Missing All Teeth

For those who currently use dentures or are missing all teeth in a single arch, implants can be paired with an implant denture. By placing four to six implants throughout the jaw, an entire arch can be restored. This option is ideal for those who are looking for a more stable foundation for their denture. We also offer All-on-4 as an alternative for patients to receive same-day dentures secured onto just four implant posts. Our team will walk you through your options to help you determine which is the ideal solution for you.

Learn More About Implant Retained Dentures

Learn More About All-On-4 Implants

Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery

Every treatment plan is unique, which means your estimate is based on your individual needs. On average, you can expect to pay for:

• Preliminary Treatments: It’s common to need additional procedures before your placement surgery, like periodontal therapy, tooth extractions, or bone grafting.
• Placement Surgery: Besides the surgery fees, you’ll also need sedation or anesthesia to ensure you’re comfortable during the procedure.

Dr. Nossa is specially trained to perform the complete dental implant process in-house, so you can avoid specialist fees to reduce the amount you’ll need to pay for your new smile. Since your procedure involves multiple steps, you won’t have to cover the entire cost at once. You’ll have more time to pay to make your treatment affordable.

Bone Grafting

A bone graft is a kind of dental surgical treatment that is designed to improve and strengthen the bone tissue in the jaw. To do this, we’ll first gather healthy tissue from another part of your body or a donor and insert the material into the specific areas of your jawbone that require more density. After we’ve embedded the grafting material into your jaw and it fuses with the rest of the area, it should begin to stimulate strong and healthy bone tissue. This is crucial for supporting and maintaining your dental implants and restorations. In most cases, the process can take a few months to complete, but this may be necessary to ensure a potentially lifelong tooth replacement.

Sinus Lift

This treatment is another type of bone graft that involves the upper jaw. The sinus cavity is generally located right above your upper molars. Should any of these back teeth go missing, the jawbone can deteriorate and cause this area not to have enough bone tissue to offer a stable foundation for your new teeth. To avoid poking your sinuses with dental implants, you might require a sinus lift. Our team will collect grafting material from a donor or another portion of your body and embed it in your upper jaw. Beforehand, we’ll make a small incision in your jawbone so that we can carefully push up the membrane holding your sinuses. Then, we’ll fill this space with bone tissue, which should strengthen the upper jaw over several months.

PRP/PRF Treatment

Your recovery is one of the most important parts of your dental implant process. To ensure a smoother healing period, our team can offer PRP/PRF treatment or Platelet-Rich Plasma/Platelet-Rich Fibrin. This method consists of using your blood to improve your healing in the surgical sites. We’ll extract some of your blood before beginning your surgery and will insert it in a centrifuge. After your procedure is done, we’ll apply it to the implant site to promote better recovery. This also helps minimize the risk of infection and lowers discomfort during your healing process.

What to Do Directly After Dental Implant Surgery

Once you’ve made it past the surgery stage, proper care and maintenance are essential to maximizing your chances of a comfortable, swift recovery. Be sure to follow the aftercare instructions of our implant dentist in Gainesville consistently. Your top priority is to avoid disturbing the blood clot on your surgery site or risk a setback. Make sure to abide by the following:

• Keep your fingers and tongue away from the surgical site(s).
• Don’t smoke for at least the first day.
• Don’t use straws when you drink.
• Don’t spit; instead, use tissues or swallow your saliva.

Common Side Effects When Recovering from Dental Implant Placement

If you’ve had oral surgery before, you may know what to expect. If not, understand some mild side effects are totally normal, especially in the first few days after your implants are placed. Here’s what you can expect:

• General discomfort, which makes sense after any surgery. Use pain medication as needed.
• Swelling is expected for the first three days and could last a week. Cold or warm compresses can provide relief.
• Intermittent bleeding can last 2-3 days. It can be mitigated with gauze and light pressure.

If any of these effects are not fading away with time, be sure to call our office.

Your Diet After Dental Implant Surgery

It’s wise to choose softer, nonabrasive foods for a while after your procedure, such as:

• Pasta
• Scrambled eggs
• Soup (not very hot)
• Pudding
• Ice cream
• Yogurt
• Mashed potatoes

You can return to a normal diet when you feel ready, but be cautious with crunchy or tough foods and avoid chewing directly on the implant site.

Post-Op Health and Oral Hygiene

You can brush your teeth the day after surgery but be careful near your surgery sites. Steer clear of mouthwash with high alcohol levels, such as Listerine or Scope. Use salt water to rinse your mouth 2-3 times each day, preferably after meals; substitute prescription mouthwash if you have it.

What to Do After Your New Teeth Are Attached

The hard part is already over since you’ve been careful and allowed your mouth to heal. Once your new crown, bridge, or denture is attached to your dental implants in Gainesville, it’s normal to have some minor, temporary sensitivity in your gum tissue; use pain medication as needed. But there should be no bleeding or swelling. Now, go share your new smile with the world!

CBCT Scanner

Dentists often use X-rays to get a look beneath a patient’s gumline. However, X-rays are limited in the amount of detail that they can provide. We take imaging a step further with our Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scanner. It uses a cone-shaped beam of radiation to capture detailed, three-dimensional images of your jawbone, nerves, and soft tissues.

It thereby provides valuable information that we can use to determine if your jawbone is healthy enough for dental implants, and it helps us plan the precise positions for your new prosthetic tooth roots. We can also use it after your implant placement surgery to monitor how well the implants are integrating with the surrounding tissue.

Guided Dental Implant Surgery

Many dentists use freehand implant placement techniques. In other words, they take a well-educated guess as to exactly where, at what angle, and how deep the implants should be placed within the patient’s jawbone.

Freehand implant placement can be successful in many cases. However, guided implant surgery is more precise and comes with a reduced risk of human error. We simply use our CBCT scanner to design a surgical guide that will help us place the implants exactly where they need to go. Research suggests that guided surgery leads to fewer instances of implant failure than freehand placement.

Antibacterial Coating

One of the biggest threats after dental implant surgery is that of infection, which can occur if bacteria accumulate on your implants. Diligent oral hygiene is important for preventing infections, but we go a step further by only using implants that have a special antibacterial coating. The coating helps to kill harmful microbes and increase the chances that your new teeth will thrive for the long haul.

Digital Impression System

After your implants are in place and they have had a few months to bond with your jawbone, it will be time for us to design your restoration (the crown, bridge, or denture that will accompany your implants). In the past, dentists always had to use messy manual impressions. Today, though, a high-tech alternatively is available.

All we have to do is use a digital scanning wand to capture thousands of images of your mouth. Advanced software will then assemble those images into a three-dimensional impression that we can use as the basis for designing your beautiful new smile. The scanning process is fast, noninvasive, and incredibly accurate. You can expect your new teeth to provide you with a comfortable bite and many other outstanding benefits.

Can I get dental implants if I have gum disease?

Gum disease is a leading cause of tooth loss because it destroys the supporting structures of the teeth. If you’ve lost one or more as a result of the infection, you may not be a candidate for dental implants. The long-term success of the procedure relies on your jawbone supporting the posts and remaining infection-free.

Gum disease can compromise the density of your jawbone while also increasing your risk of failure as a result of the bacteria. Unfortunately, you cannot get dental implants until after the infection has been successfully treated. You may also need additional procedures to repair any damage the infection has caused, such as bone grafting.

Am I too old for dental implants?

Age is not necessarily a determining factor for your candidacy for dental implants; however, you must be finished growing. You must also have good oral and general health to undergo the treatment.

Can dental implants fail?

Dental implants are the most predictable and reliable tooth replacement option. They are proven to last for several decades, but there are instances where they can fail. The risk is generally less than 5%, which is most often caused by a preventable infection that’s like gum disease. Thankfully, there are several things you can do to decrease your risk of complications, including:

•  Maintain your oral hygiene at home.
•  Visit your dentist at least twice a year for a cleaning and checkup.
•  Don’t smoke or use tobacco.
•  Don’t drink alcohol in excess.

Does dental insurance cover dental implants?

It’s no secret dental implants are initially more expensive than traditional treatments, but they are actually more affordable long-term because they can last for a lifetime. Paying for your new smile is easier than you might believe because the treatment is performed in multiple stages, giving you more time to pay. Dr. Nossa explains the costs associated with each phase of your treatment to ensure you’re making the best choice for your oral health needs and your quality of life.

Unfortunately, most dental insurances will not pay the entire cost of the treatment, but they may cover certain aspects. Our office staff works on your behalf with your insurance company to reduce the amount you need to pay out-of-pocket. We accept several forms of payment to keep your new smile affordable, including third-party financing with CareCredit. We’ll help you find the solutions you need to successfully replace your missing teeth.