I had a dental bridge when I was a teenager. Now I am in my forties. I can see a little bone loss (I think) where the bridge is. I would like to get a dental implant instead and am assuming I would need some bone grafting. Is there a way to know if you are a good candidate for bone grafting? How do you go about finding an implant dentist? I don’t see them listed in the specialties in my insurance packet.
Carol
Dear Carol,
If you are in good general health, then you are usually fine candidate for dental implants. There are always exceptions, but once you pick your dental implant dentist, he or she will run diagnostics, such as x-rays and a CT scan to get all the specifics about your case and candidacy.
As for choosing an implant dentist, there is a reason you are not seeing it in your insurance packet. There are a few areas of dentistry that most people do not realize is not a recognized specialty– cosmetic dentistry, implant dentistry, and holistic dentistry (though holistic dentistry is more of a treatment philosophy than a field). In these cases, it is up to the dentist how much post-doctoral training they get. Unfortunately, in the case of cosmetic work and dental implants, there is not adequate training in dental school to do these properly so that extra training is really necessary.
I would look on the dentist’s websites to see what type of post-doctoral training they have specifically in that field. It will be even better if, like Dr. Potts, they can also do the surgery themselves instead of having to farm you out to an oral surgeon for that. Their qualifications should be listed either on their dental implant page or their bio page (sometimes both). If you don’t see any listed, that will tell you they don’t have any. In that case, move on to a different dentist.
This blog is brought to you by Libertyville Dentist Dr. David Potts.