Video Website powered by Einstein IndustriesMartin & Winkler, D.D.S., P.C.

EMILE MARTIN, D.D.S.: Implant dentistry can be provided to almost every patient. There are some medically compromised patients for which you'd want to get some backup from their physician, but for the most part, anyone who has lost a tooth or teeth or all of their teeth could be a candidate. You have to have adequate quantity and quality of bone to be able to provide the implant therapy that we're using today. Most of that technology is implants that go into the bone, not on the bone, but we have done what's called subpriosteo [phonetic] implants in the past.

The particularly wonderful aspect of the implant dentistry is the predictability. Studies almost universally are showing 90% success rate of the implant of the implant itself over a 10-year period of time, and we have patients that are going 22, 23 years with their implants now, doing very well with them. And we're very proud of that.

Functionality, as far as the implant's concerned, is just like a natural tooth. I mean, it doesn't have a shock absorber like our natural teeth have, what's called periodontal ligament, but it's, as far as the utilization of that tooth is concerned, you can bite corn with it if you're just talking about a front tooth. You can bite a sandwich off with it versus a partial denture or a removable which we'd have a lot of difficult in being able to do that type of procedure.

From a self esteem point of view, the tooth looks essentially like the natural tooth, and in doing that, the patient will have the tendency to smile more. We have patients that want to put their hands across their mouths when they don't want to show us their smile, and when we get done wit these kinds of procedures, they're just out there smiling as big as can be.