English 
Spanish Aging brings changes to our bodies, including a gradual loss of strength and resilience. For some, this leads to frailty—a condition that weakens bones, including the jawbone! Unfortunately, as we age, we also tend to lose teeth. While aging itself doesn’t directly cause missing teeth, the two are often linked due to various health factors. However, traditional dental implants require a strong jawbone for tooth replacement, making them inaccessible for many frail patients.
Thankfully, at Fine Dental Care, we have a solution! Mini dental implants are a smaller, less invasive alternative that replaces missing teeth and helps prevent further bone loss. Amazingly, research suggests that mini implants can improve quality of life for frail patients—restoring smiles while keeping the jawbone strong!
Understanding Mini Dental Implants
Dental implants are titanium posts we place into the jawbone to replace teeth. These implants support beautiful restorations like artificial crowns, bridges, and dentures, that restore your smile! There are two main types of dental implants for tooth replacement.
Traditional Dental Implants
Traditional dental implants are larger and consist of multiple parts. Unfortunately, due to their size, frail patients can be ineligible for these implants. For those with minimal bone structure to be eligible for a traditional dental implant, a bone graft is often necessary. While this procedure does help replenish lost bone, it is time-consuming and expensive.
To place traditional implants, we use a surgical procedure that involves creating incisions and using a series of increasingly large drills. As these implants have a multi-piece design, we must place each one separately over periods of healing. Over these 3 months, your implant fuses to your jawbone, creating an incredibly strong bond.
While traditional dental implants are sometimes necessary, we often prefer mini dental implants for their many wonderful benefits, including their accessibility to frail patients!
Mini Dental Implants
Mini dental implants are small in diameter, less than 3 millimeters, and have a sleek one-piece design. With these implants, frail patients or those who have lost jawbone structure due to tooth loss are often still eligible—even without a bone graft!
To place these implants, we use a minimally invasive process that preserves the surrounding tissues, resulting in much faster healing. Instead of creating an incision, we make a small pilot hole through your gums and into your jawbone, and carefully screw the implant in place. Once inserted, mini implants are remarkably stable, supporting temporary restorations immediately! In many cases, we can even anchor a permanent restoration the same day we place your mini implants, restoring your smile in just one appointment!
Why Tooth Replacement With Mini Dental Implants Is Important
Frail patients are more suited for mini dental implants because of their smaller size and minimally invasive procedure. Due to their narrow diameter, mini implants need much less bone structure for support, allowing frail patients to restore their smiles.
Additionally, their minimally invasive procedure results in faster healing, which is important for frail patients who often struggle with a compromised healing ability. But why are missing teeth such a frequent issue for frail patients?
Frailty often comes hand in hand with jawbone resorption, as tooth loss and frailty are interconnected. Rather than one causing the other, the two conditions usually exacerbate one another. Frail patients are more likely to lose teeth, and older adults who have lost multiple teeth are more likely to develop frailty.
While the relationship between the two conditions is complex, the outcome is simple. As your jawbone shrinks, it becomes more and more difficult to replace your missing teeth. Fortunately, Fine Dental Care has a solution!
We use mini implants to both replace your missing teeth and act as artificial tooth roots! Natural tooth roots stimulate the jawbone when you chew, keeping it healthy and dense. When you lose teeth, you lose this stimulation, which causes your jawbone to lose mass and volume. Amazingly, dental implants replace these roots, keeping your smile secure and healthy!
Revitalize Your Smile With Mini Implants for Tooth Replacement
Patients dealing with frailty are often ineligible for tooth replacement with traditional dental implants due to their lack of jawbone structure. Fortunately, Fine Dental Care provides the innovative mini dental implant, an amazing alternative that allows patients to replace teeth using less jawbone! With their minimally invasive procedure and sleek design, we can place these implants in just one appointment, restoring your smile and maintaining your jawbone structure.
Book a free implant consultation at Fine Dental Care today to discover what mini implants can do for your smile!
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