Beverly Hills Dental Implants Specialist

If you have lost or are going to lose one or more teeth, it’s important to get them replaced before your other teeth shift or suffer damage. Dental implants are the best tooth replacement option available, and there’s many ways to design them. They look like natural teeth, function like natural teeth, and only require the same basic care as natural teeth. Best of all, like natural teeth, dental implants can last a lifetime if properly cared for.

Dr. Nicolas Ravon is a Beverly Hills dental implant specialist with a combination of European and American training to help him provide the highest-quality results in your dental implant procedure. Please call 310-275-5325 or contact Dr. Ravon today for an appointment at our office in Beverly Hills.

How Dental Implants Work

Dental implants look and function like natural teeth because they are made like natural teeth. They have an artificial root that is incorporated into your jawbone, firmly anchoring the dental implants in the same way that your natural teeth were. This tooth root is then topped with an attractive dental crown that is indistinguishable from your natural teeth.

Most dental implants are made of titanium, a metal that is very biocompatible. However, Nicolas A. Ravon DDS MSD is one of the few practices in the country offering zirconia metal free dental implants that are ideal for people with metal sensitivity, and have many benefits for other candidates.

In the dental implants procedure, the artificial root is introduced into your jawbone. There are three options for when this can be done. Which is best for you depends on your oral health and desired results.

Looking for a Dental Implant Specialist?

The dental implant procedure benefits from the care of a specialist. The education and experience of the dentist performing the dental implant procedure is one of the biggest influences on the success or failure of your dental implants.

But here’s the catch: there’s technically no such thing as a “dental implant specialist.” In medicine, the term “specialist” has a very precise definition. A specialist is someone who has been certified by a medical board as having the training necessary to deliver specialized care of a certain type. Specialists take the training that general dentists do, then go on to get additional training in their area of specialization. In dentistry, only a few specialties have been recognized by the American Dental Association (ADA).

Several specialties have bearing on the dental implant procedure, including periodontist. A periodontist is trained in the care and treatment of the tissues around the tooth, the gum and jawbone. This gives them insight into the proper techniques for placing dental implants.

Immediate Placement

In certain cases, once a tooth has been extracted immediate placement of the dental implant is possible, shortening treatment time by months.

The advantages of this technique over a standard 2-stage technique (described below), is the elimination of any waiting period as well as the second surgery.

The healing process (osseointegration) is a natural process as your body recovers and builds up new bone where the implant is placed. In some cases a temporary crown or bridge can be placed at the same time as the surgery so you can go home with a nice new smile.

Early Placement

When immediate implant placement is not an option, early placement is a faster alternative to traditional delayed placement. Similar to traditional placement there are two stages to early implant placement. Treatment duration will vary depending on individual circumstances but generally only takes between 2 to 12 weeks.

Delayed Placement

In traditional delayed implant placement, once a tooth is extracted 6 months is allowed for the surrounding bone to build up before proceeding with the implant procedure. Once the implant is placed, it is capped, covered with gum tissue, while it heals and firmly adheres to the surrounding bone. This generally takes 1-3 months.

Once your dental implants are fully integrated, in a second procedure the temporary cap is removed and your crown or bridge is placed.

Zirconia Dental Implants: The Source of Strength

CeraRoot dental implants are made from yttria-stabilized zirconia. This makes them different from the type of zirconia used as a substitute for diamond, which is pure cubic zirconia. Yttrium is very similar to zirconium, but it’s slightly larger. Adding it to the zirconia stabilizes the material and allows it to go through the high-temperature manufacturing process while retaining its strength. The addition of hafnium oxide, chemically similar to zirconium oxide, also helps improve the strength.

Just how strong are zirconia dental implants? Stronger than titanium, that’s for sure. Pure titanium, which is used in some dental implants, has a tensile strength of about 660 megapascals (MPA), about 96,000 pounds per square inch (psi). And with alloying, we can achieve tensile strengths of up to 993 MPA, about 144,000 psi. That’s pretty strong, but zirconia dental implants are even stronger, about 1000 MPA or 145,000 psi. But tensile strength measures how strong something is under pulling stress. What about compressive strength, which is necessary to endure the repeated crushing force of biting and chewing?

Zirconia dental implants are even stronger in this measure. Where alloyed titanium has a compressive strength of about 970 MPA, about 141,000 psi, zirconia dental implants’ compressive strength is about 2000 MPA, nearly 300,000 psi!

That strength, combined with the biocompatibility of zirconia dental implants, makes them a great choice for dental implants of the future.

To learn which dental implants procedure is best for you, please call (310) 275-5325 or contact your Beverly Hills dental implant specialist Dr. Ravon in Beverly Hills today for an appointment.