If you decide that dental implants are for you, then your general dentist or prosthodontist can either place the implants for you or refer you to a qualified surgeon, usually either an oral surgeon or a periodontist, for that phase of the treatment. There are organizations who give credentials and awards to dentists that make it look like these dentists are highly trained implant specialists, but these credentials are false and unrecognized by the American Dental Association. In some states, it is considered illegal to advertise these credentials. The specialty areas of dentistry that are most aligned with dental implants are Prosthodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Periodontics. As our lifespan increases, the need for some type of permanent dental replacement system becomes very important to our overall health.
Implants can provide people with dental replacements that are both functional and esthetic.
The demand was always there, we just needed the tools to fulfill that demand. The protocol that was originally developed clearly states that we must wait three months in the lower jaw and six months in the upper jaw before we can begin to construct the new dental prosthesis that will be supported by the implants. In recent years, however, there has been a movement within the profession to sort of speed up this process. Today we believe that it is possible in selected patients to accelerate the healing time. We are even loading implants in very specific situations right away.