What is an Implant?  This is a question I hear often. My return question is, “What is a tooth?”. Many people do not know the anatomy of a tooth, or have not explored the building blocks of one. To start with, a tooth is a lot taller than you might think. The part you see in your mouth is the iceberg above the water. Below the surface is the root, the part that contains the nerve as well as anchors the tooth in its place, with the help from the gum, bone, and surrounding tissue. In its simplest form a tooth is a root with a crown on top. And what is an implant? A metal root with a crown on top. If the tooth is compromised and needs to be extracted, and a replacement is wanted, an implant makes sense to me. It replaces what was there before. The crown screws into the root, the new implant, and lays flush with the gum just like all your other teeth. If need be, the crown can come out, but only by a dentist, otherwise it is simply a permanent part of your mouth. You eat with it, you floss around it, you brush it. An implant is a replacement tooth, instead of being a replacement for a tooth. It is one of the options out there, and it is the most anatomically similar to an actual tooth.

Written by Amanda Ruehlen RDA 

Parent of one, Caring for all