Dental Implants: Replacement Tooth Roots

The dental implants used by most dentists and dental specialists today are root-form implants. This basically means that they are replacement, or substitute tooth roots, used to replace natural tooth roots in areas of the mouth where teeth are missing.

The reason it is so important to replace the tooth root and not just the visible part of the tooth (crown) is that natural tooth roots, which are embedded in the bone, preserve the bone.

When teeth are missing, the bone that previously supported those teeth melts away, or deteriorates. This process is called bone resorption.

However, the bone can be preserved by replacing missing tooth roots with dental implants. Since the bone actually forms a strong bond to the implants, they can serve the same functions as natural tooth roots: a strong foundation for biting and chewing, and stimulation for the bone to hold it in place.

With an overall success rate of about 95%, and over 50 years of clinical research, dental implants have the best long-term prognosis of any method of tooth replacement.