Stockton, Sacramento Area Implant Dentistry – Custom Dental Implants
People tend to think of dental implants as tooth replacements. In fact, implants are the foundation upon which natural looking tooth replacements are built. Modern implant dentistry now provides the technology needed to restore the function of your bite and also improve your appearance.
Advanced implant dentistry uses many types of implant devices, each constructed from various traditional and innovative materials. At our practice, serving the Lodi, Manteca, Tracy, Modesto, Stockton, and Sacramento area, we offer several types of dental implants, each designed to replace the roots of your teeth, or even the bones of your face, and provide a foundation on which artificial teeth, dentures, bridges, and crowns can be placed.
Please contact our practice today to schedule an appointment with dentist Dr. Douglas Martin.
At our Stockton implant dentistry practice, near Modesto, Lodi, Tracy, and Sacramento, the categories of dental implants available to our patients include the following major types:
Endosteal Dental Implants
Endosteal dental implants are devices that are placed into bone. At our practice in Stockton, near Modesto and Sacramento, endosteal dental implants are used when there is enough bony structure to support the intended reconstruction. There are several basic designs. A screw implant is commonly used where there is adequate bone strong enough to support the tooth. Sometimes a screw implant requires bone grafting to create enough bone. A plate implant is used when the bone is too thin to support a screw implant without grafting. A ramus frame implant is a special device which uses plate forms connected by a prefabricated bar to supply a support for a full lower denture. Endosteal dental implants are pre-manufactured in one, two, or three piece systems. One-piece systems are the strongest. Two-piece systems can be very strong and should have hermetically sealing parts. Many three-piece systems are fraught with complications, which is why Dr. Martin believes they make a poor choice for dental reconstruction at his Stockton implant dentistry practice. Endosteal dental implants may not be an appropriate choice when the structures of the mouth and face are too deteriorated or damaged to allow for drilling into the bone. The one and two-piece endosteal dental implants systems have had FDA approval since the 1960s and before. The American Dental Association approved a three-piece system in 1984.
Custom Endosteal Dental Implants
Custom endosteal dental implants are custom devices that are made to fit only one patient. Custom dental implants have no limitations and can be used even with the most damaged or deteriorated bone. Seventy percent of patients have too little bone to use the screw or plate forms of endosteal dental implants. When patients have too little bone for screws or plates, it requires expensive and difficult bone grafting. Bone grafting is sometimes necessary for single tooth dental implants. However, the use of bone grafting for the placement of several dental implants is usually unnecessary. In most cases, Stockton / Sacramento dentist Douglas Martin, D.D.S. can create a custom dental implant to fit the damaged bone.
Custom dental implants are made from a three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) scan of the patient’s jaw. A duplicate of the patient’s jawbone is made using the digital data from the CT scan. This model is used to construct custom implants at our practice in the Stockton, Sacramento area. The dental implants are then fabricated to exactly fit the model and coated with synthetic bone, assuring that the implant will adapt perfectly. Synthetic bone is an exact duplicate of the mineral in natural bones. It is compatible with all animals. Synthetic bone coating insures the bonding of bone to the dental implants within six weeks.
The custom dental implants are placed using special techniques developed over the last 20 years, pioneered by Dr Tom Golec. The dental implants are subjected to 10 million degree heat in conditions of outer space. This plasma cleaning process guarantees that our Stockton, Modesto, and Sacramento patients receive the cleanest possible dental implants. The implants are coated with the patient's blood and serum, which bonds to the super clean surface. A plasma-cleaned dental implant that has been coated with the patient's blood proteins is indistinguishable from the patient. The biocompatible implant is placed using special bone grafting procedures, which assure that the implant will be bonded and enclosed in bone. The healing regimen also assures that the implant will heal completely encapsulated in bone. Because the bone grafting procedure is part of the placement of dental implants, a badly damaged jawbone can also be rebuilt at the same time. The patient can and does have teeth placed immediately when this system is used. Dr. Martin's Stockton and Sacramento patients are never without teeth; the dental implants are used to provide an immediate foundation for a denture or bridge.
Custom endosteal dental implants have been developed by diplomates of the American Board of Implant Dentistry. This advanced technique is used by only a few clinicians with special training far above and beyond that taught by dental schools or specialty programs. The American Board of Oral Implantology / Implant Dentistry is the only organization which tests knowledge of this dental implant system.
We highly recommend that anyone in the Modesto / Stockton / Sacramento area who is contemplating custom dental implants seek out a Board Certified Implantologist, one who will not only be trained but also tested in the use of these custom devices.
The human histology of one of Dr. Martin's patient's dental implants was reviewed at the University of Alabama. "This implant is the best result I have ever seen with any implant," said Dr. Jack Lemons, head of the Department of Dental Implant Materials. Dr. Martin has continued to develop this technique for over twenty years and has found that more than 99 percent of custom implants placed at his Stockton implant dentistry practice were still in functional after 10 years. The custom dental implant in its original form was called a superiosteal implant; it was the first system approved by the American Dental Association. The FDA has approved custom dental implant systems since 1954.
To find out more about custom treatments at our Stockton implant dentistry practice, contact dentist Douglas Martin, D.D.S. today.
Augmentation Dental Implants
Augmentation dental implants are used to build up bone, providing bulk or cosmetic improvement. Increasing the size of a weak chin, creating beautiful cheek bones, changing the angle of the jaw, or lifting noses are examples of the use of augmentation dental implants. In some cases it is necessary to augment existing bone to add another type of dental implant. Augmentation materials include bone and synthetic bone, as well as other devices manufactured to replace or augment missing facial bone structures.
Mucosal Dental Implants
Mucosal dental implants are devices that can be used to stabilize and increase the retention of an existing upper denture. These dental implants are small snaps that fit into a prepared socket in the palate and gum; they do not involve drilling into bone. This type of dental implant has been successfully applied to the upper dentures of smokers where other implants tend to fail. At our Stockton implant dentistry practice, mucosal implants are not used to stabilize lower dentures.
Transdental Implants
Transdental implants are used to stabilize an individual tooth. Transdental implants have often been used in the past and still find some limited usefulness; however, it is often better to sacrifice the weak tooth and replace it with an endosteal dental implant that is not susceptible to decay.
Transosteal Dental Implants
Transosteal dental implants are very seldom used and only a small number of dentists use this technique. The transosteal dental implant approach involves drilling all the way through the lower jaw, and bolting a plate onto the bottom of the jaw with nuts on top, where a denture can then be mounted on the screws that protrude through the gums. The system requires opening the skin below the patient's chin with the possibility of unsightly scarring. Dr. Martin prefers not to use this technique at his Stockton implant dentistry practice; in his opinion, the system is unnecessarily invasive and has a high failure rate.
Please contact our Stockton implant dentistry practice, also serving Modesto, Lodi, Tracy, Manteca, and Sacramento to find out more about the dental implants featured on this page.
If you live near the Sacramento area, and you are interested in dental implants, contact our Stockton implant dentistry practice today.
*Required fields
Douglas M. Martin, DDS
1310 East Swain Road. S-2
Stockton, California, 95210
Tel. 866- 519-0855
Fax. 209-951-4822