Dental implants and mini dental implants are helping patients live with healthy, beautiful smiles even after tooth loss. While both of these treatments can help you regain your stellar smile, they are not exactly the same. Today our Saint Louis dental implant dentists are reviewing how the treatment processes differ from dental implants and mini dental implants, respectively. Read on to learn more…
1. Timeline
Full-sized dental implants require a healing period between when the implant root is placed and when the root is capped with a dental restoration. When a conventional implant is placed, the bone tissue must heal for a few months before it is stable and strong enough to support the restoration and function as a normal tooth.
Mini dental implants, on the other hand, are completed in one appointment. Mini dental implants do not require the same level of healing time as conventional dental implants, because the mini implant root is much thinner than a traditional implant root.
2. Invasiveness
Mini dental implant placement is less invasive and traumatic to the bone tissue than regular dental implants. The thin mini dental implant root can be placed without destruction and displacement of significant bone tissue. The thicker conventional dental implant root requires more invasive drilling, which is why it then takes longer to heal.
3. Sedation
Mini dental implants can often be placed with local anesthesia only. Full-sized dental implants require more extensive sedation treatment, such as general anesthesia.
If you want to learn more about the differences between conventional dental implants and mini dental implants, feel free to call our Saint Louis dentist office, today! We’ll walk you through your treatment processes, and help you decide which type of restoration best fits your needs. You can also visit our dental implants page and mini dental implants page for more information!