Dental Implants State College

Day-to-Day Benefits

Dental implants offer so many benefits, especially ones you’ll notice immediately in your daily life. These include things like:

• The ability to chew all your favorite foods again.
• Easily brush and floss your teeth instead of needing to use expensive soaks or special cleansers.
• Smiling with confidence, knowing your new teeth look realistic and will never slip out of place at an embarrassing moment.

Health Benefits

In addition to the many wonderful daily benefits your new dental benefits can provide, they also offer some incredible health benefits, too. These include:

• Maintaining a strong, healthy jawbone.
• Supporting any surrounding teeth.
• Enabling you to eat a nutritious diet.
• Not causing gum sores or tooth sensitivity like dental bridges and dentures can.
• Easier cleaning means better oral health, and a lower risk of overall health issues.

Long-Term Benefits

Finally, your new dental benefits will also provide some little-known, long-term benefits, such as:

• A 95% success rate, even ten years after placement.
• No need to replace them every five to seven years like you would with dentures or dental bridges.
• A potential savings of both time and money when compared to other restoration options.

Who is a Good Candidate for Dental Implants?

Dental implants are generally suitable for almost any healthy adult. To be considered a good candidate, you typically need:

• Good overall health - Since dental implant placement involves a minor procedure, it's important to be in good health to undergo the surgery successfully.
• Good oral health - Existing issues like gum disease or cavities can affect implant success, which is why they must be addressed before proceeding.
• Strong jawbone - Adequate jawbone density is important for supporting dental implants.

Even if you initially seem like you’re not a candidate for dental implants, we offer preparatory treatments like bone grafting and gum disease treatment to ensure implant success. After completing these procedures, your smile will be prepared for implants, and we'll design a plan tailored to the number of missing teeth.

Missing One Tooth

For just one missing tooth, we can place a single implant post, abutment (a metal connector piece), and a lifelike dental crown. Once this procedure is finished, your implant should be virtually indistinguishable from your natural teeth.

Missing Multiple Teeth

For those missing several teeth in a row, a few crowns can be strung together to form a sturdy dental bridge. An implant with a crown will be placed on either end of the space in your smile, and these will be bonded to prosthetic teeth to literally bridge the gap. Implant-retained bridges are not only much stronger than traditional ones, but they also do a better job of blending in with your smile.

Missing All Teeth

Instead of placing an implant for every missing tooth you have, we can simply place four to six in order to provide enough support for a full denture. This eliminates the need for ill-fitting dentures that slip around when talking or chewing. These prosthetic teeth are instead permanently fixed in your mouth, giving you a more consistent bite and smile.

Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery

Before you receive your dental implants, you may need to undergo bone grafting or another type of preliminary treatment. Such procedures are often necessary to ensure that implant posts can successfully be placed. Needless to say, any preliminary work you need will come with its own costs.

As for the dental implant surgery itself, the price can be influenced by factors like the part of your mouth where the implant posts need to be inserted. Note that we can place dental implants in-office, so you won’t need to worry about receiving a bill from a different practice.

The Parts of Your Dental Implant

Determining the cost of the actual implant posts involves finding answers to the following questions:

• How many implant posts are needed? The number of teeth that you have lost can affect the number of implant posts that you end up paying for.
• What kind of restoration will you get? Dental implants can support crowns, bridges, and dentures, with the smaller types of restorations usually costing less.
• What brand of dental implant will be used? There are a number of implant manufacturers, and the overall cost is influenced by the brand you end up choosing.

How Dental Implants Can Save You Money

Dental implants have a higher initial cost than other tooth replacement options, so you may be surprised to learn that they can actually end up saving you money. This is thanks to their longevity; while you would need to pay to have a traditional bridge or denture replaced every 5 to 10 years, dental implants have the potential to last for decades. Additionally, you can take care of them as if they were real teeth, so you don’t have to worry about buying any specialized cleaning solutions.

Does My Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?

A lot of dental insurance plans do not include coverage for dental implant posts but can still help pay for the final restoration and related preliminary procedures. Of course, no two dental insurance plans are the same. It’s worth reaching out to your dental insurance provider in order to clarify what your coverage looks like.

Making Dental Implants Affordable

If you want to make the dental implant process less of a strain on your budget, you may want to consider pursuing financing through CareCredit. By allowing you to pay in monthly installments with little to no interest, CareCredit can make paying for your dental care much less stressful. You can also sign up for our Quality Dental Plan, which comes with member benefits on dental implants and various other services.