Are You an Ideal Candidate for Surgical Dental Implants?
How do you determine if you are a good candidate for surgical dental implants? The first step would be to gain a better understanding of what a dental implant is and what it does. A dental implant replaces the root of a tooth that has fallen out. Utilizing a dental implant allows your dentist to replace the fallen out tooth permanently. Unlike dentures you don’t have to worry about taking your implants out to clean them. Review all the points below to see if you are a good candidate who qualifies for dental implants.

Good Health
With any surgery the success rate goes up depending on the health of the patient. In other words, if a patient has good health it is more likely that the surgery will be successful. In addition to having overall good health it’s important the patient has good dental health meaning no pre-existing dental conditions.

Pre-existing Medical Conditions:

Gum Disease
Any pre-existing oral health issues should be treated prior to dental implant surgery to ensure success and minimize pain. For example, gum disease and tooth decay is considered a pre-existing medical condition that should be treated before dental implant surgery.

Chemotherapy
Your immune system is weakened when you are receiving chemotherapy or undergoing radiation. You might not be the best candidate for dental implant surgery if your immune system is weak because you would be more prone to infection and take longer to recover.

Diabetes
If a patient has Diabetes, they are not considered to be a good candidate for surgical dental implants. The main reason for this would be that their healing time may take a significant amount of time placing them in the unwanted position of getting an infection.

Osteoporosis
Also a patient who suffers from osteoporosis may not be a good candidate for dental implant surgery. Osteoporosis leads to the loss of bone density and this crucial to dental implant surgery because of bone grafting and with bone loss this might not be possible.

Qualified Candidate
Now that you have reviewed all of the conditions above if you don’t have any of them then it is safe to say you would be considered a good candidate for dental implants. Then next step would be to reach out to your dentist to set up a consultation. During the consultation this is your opportunity to ask any questions you have related to the procedure and to inform your dentist of medications you are taking. It’s important to have open communication with your doctor to ensure that your surgery is a success.