Implants immediate placement

As an Orlando dentist I get many calls weekly about implants. You know implants are the best thing going. If you have lost a tooth you can now have it back with a implant. An implant is a titanium cylinder that is placed below the bone and acts like a root form of a tooth. A major issue with these is the waiting time from the extraction date to when you have a implant placed. I have placed literally thousands of implants now and the best way to do it is have the tooth extracted that needs to come out and the extraction site grafted with bone. Now let the site heal for 4 months before placing the implant. This allows the bone to regenerate and good new bone for the implant. This allows you to place the implant with bone on all sides, which in my oppinon is better than immediate placement.
The advantage of immediate placement is you do not have to wait the extra 4 months for healing. When choosing immediate placement there are a few more risks involved. When taking the tooth out you have to have bone on all 4 sides or it is not a good candidate for immediate placement. You should just graft and wait the 4 months. It is also more costly, because you have to add bone in areas that are not yet healed to give the implant a better chance. With immediate you have a risky situation if it does not integrate and you then have to graft and start all over. You might have a medical situation that leaves you to immediate placement, but all in all I graft my sites 90% of the time and go back in 4 months and place my implant. I have the best success doing it this way. Immediate placement you lack stability and are hoping for integration and that the implant will tighten up in 4 months. I will be happy to answer any of your questions if you ever have this choice.

Extraction Site Grafting for future implants

Many times like I stated in my last blog, we have to take a tooth out and choose to have a implant placed. This is the best way to go in a lot of cases especially now that implants are so successful. Years ago when we took a tooth out we did not put something back in the hole, we let it heal by secondary intention. Now we see that the ridge has a horse saddle appearance due to lack of bone and the way the area healed after the tooth was extracted. If we do want to place a implant you want to graft the extraction site with more bone as to allow the area to heal all the way to the top. You will have only a minimal dip and this will allow you to have better implant placement. You are placing the implant in a flat surface instead of a saddled looking surface which the later will not allow you to make a cosmetic crown. It will make the new implant better periodontally as well. You will be able to clean around your implant as well. I have been doing this procedure since the early 1990's and with great result. You can use your own bone or a synthetic which your body resorbs and lays down its own to fill the extraction site to the top. The synthetic bone acts like a scaffold for your own bone to follow.
So all in all when doing a extraction where you are going to place a implant in 4 months you will get a better result with your implant in the end by grafting the site with bone.