Missing a single tooth can be a discomfort, especially when eating, and then brushing after that. Most likely, your first missing tooth will be a molar, on the top or bottom, one that you depend on for chewing your food. You can chew on the other side, but that gets old after awhile.

Teeth are meant to last a life time, but sometimes that's not the case. In most experiences, primary molar ages and cracks, and then a new crown is fabricated and cemented on. After a period of around 20 to 30 years, or 2 or 3 crowns later, the tooth underneath the crown cracks again, requiring that the tooth be pulled.

If the surrounding teeth around the missing tooth are strong and sound, then the most logical choice for you would be to get a single tooth dental implant. Otherwise, the alternative would be to replace the other weak teeth surrounding the missing tooth with an Implant Retained Bridge.

Regardless of which tooth is missing, or how you lost your tooth, a missing tooth can now be easily, comfortably, and permanently replaced with a dental implant. A dental implant consists of a jaw anchor that is surgically installed into the jaw bone, and is topped off with an abutment stud, and a special crown system that is cemented on at the end. This special crown system will at least be a Nobel Biocare Procera Crown, which is very strong made from ceramic, and will offer the same translucency that a regular tooth offers. Only a well trained dentist will be able to tell the difference.

Let's take a quick look at what these implants are, and how they are installed, so you better understand the procedure. Then if you feel good with it, you can call our office at 714-846-4414 and get one setup for you.

Using the image above as a reference, we'll take a look at the parts and components that make up a single tooth dental implant.

The Jaw Anchor is surgically implanted into the jaw bone. The bone will now start growing back around the jaw anchor, and gum tissue will now form back around the anchor as well.

When the bone has grown back and confirmed by x-ray and pressure testing, then an abutment will be attached to the top of the jaw anchor. The abutment is a stud that protrudes above the gum line, and is what the crown will be cemented on to.

A special cap will be placed over the abutment. Its job is to insure a better fit, and to reflect light. Then the crown will be cemented on over the special cap. This crown is semi translucent, so when lights shines through it, it will be reflected back just like a real tooth.

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The image represents the Nobel Biocare Dental Implant Systems for incisors, the teeth in the front of your mouth, and molars which are the teeth in the back of your mouth that you use for chewing.

The Nobel Biocare Replace Implant System is quite unique, in which a specially designed jaw anchor, is fabricated to accept a specially designed abutment that already has the inner core of the tooth attached to it. This inner core is the reflective surface that will reflect light back, through the translucent crown, mimicking the actual properties of a real tooth. This result is a replacement tooth that is so life like, only a trained dentist can tell the difference.

The Nobel Biocare Active Implant System is the same, but the abutment is much larger, and is already keyed, so that when the crown is cemented on, it will not turn in place, and when removed, can be placed back on in perfect alignment.

The most important aspect to your dental implant will be the crown that is cemented on to the top of the abutment. This is the part you and people you come in contact with will see and be judged by. Besides the Jaw Anchor being of sound quality and installed correctly, the crown must be able to both function on a daily basis, and look real good, just like a real tooth.

So let's look at the important factors that make up a high quality dental implant crown. At HLD Dental Implant Center, we like using the Noble Biocare Procera Crown System for dental implant projects. They are made from a special ceramic formula that has been in the making for over 20 years. This formula is similar in properties when compared to the 3M Lava Crown that is made or a special zirconia formula. Nobel just calls their formula ceramic, but the ceramic material is very strong being able to withstand pressures up to 450 PSI on a daily basis, and accepts coloring and tinting very well. This formula also has a translucent property, in which is it able to transmit light going into the tooth and back out, mimicking the real properties of true dental enamel and dentin.

These crowns are computer numerical controlled (CNC) milled from a solid block of Zirconia or Nobel Biocare Ceramic Formula. These CNC machines are capable of producing extreme high resolution duplicates of an existing tooth, or a replica based on the styles and patterns of your existing teeth. When they select the Zirconia block, it will be taken from stock that matches your teeth color exactly.

So what is Zirconia? Zirconia is a white crystalline oxide of zirconium, that is blended with magnesium oxide, yttrium oxide, calcium oxide and cerium oxide, which act as stabilizing agents for the zirconium when heated up to high temperatures. Without the additives, pure zirconium molecules going from cubic to tetragonal to monoclinic forms, will crack upon cooling. Basically you guessed it, it a white form of cubic Zirconia, which represent fake diamonds. That’s how it’s able to offer translucent qualities.

Let's take a look at one installation procedure for the single dental implant. We will use a molar in this case, with a young male patient about age 35. He was wearing a crown, but the underlying tooth finally cracked in 3 pieces, and was forced to have the tooth removed.

So the tooth was removed because the patient was in pain, and the dental implant procedure was booked. This particular molar is one of his primary chewing teeth, and he did not want to go on not being able to chew his meat in a comfortable manner.

The patient has already been in 3 months earlier for oral surgery, and already had the jaw anchor installed. After the jaw anchor was installed, a healing cap was installed. A Healing cap ensures that the gum tissue grows back around the jaw anchor, and does not grow inside the boundaries of the abutment.

The Abutment has now been installed, and the alignment is being double checked. Next, the abutment will be tightened with a torque wench to a specific psi. This ensures that the abutment will not loosen, and will be tighten to the max, without stripping out the threads.

The doctor is now using the torque wench to tighten the abutment. After that, the abutment will be notched and keyed, as a registration point in case the crown has to be taken off and put back on again.

Next molding latex will be injected, and a mold will be taken of all the surrounding teeth, and the abutment. This allows the dental lab to now design his new Noble Biocare Procera Crown.

Because we now have a full mold of the teeth, the lab will be able to scan the mold, and computer create a new crown, that will fit in the empty place, and mimic the same characteristics that the missing tooth had such as sharp pointed corners.

We have several case studies, or before and after pictures to show to you below. These particular case studies have been provided by Nobel Biocare. We will add more case studies later on in 2009.