Mind the gap! Why dental implants are a great solution to missing teeth.

At my dental practices, tooth dental in Waterloo, we have a truly amazing team of experienced and well qualified Dentists, Dental Specialists and Dental Hygienists. As many of you will know, the branches are split - all of our general dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, facial aesthetics and orthodontics are done at our dental practice at 45-46 Lower Marsh, and at our Specialist Dental Centre at 26 Lower Marsh, SE1 we have a dedicated Implantologist and a full time Oral Surgeon (as well as a Periodontist and an Endodontist).

This means that dental implants are a very common dental treatment for us, and the results that implants achieve are much more than just a new ‘tooth’. What we always notice post-implant, is the incredible transformation on both look and confidence that the dental implant or dental implants have achieved! It really is amazing to see!

Even though dental implants are an everyday treatment for us, they are naturally also one of the treatments that patients seem most worried about, or have the most questions about. So, here’s some information that may be useful for anyone considering a dental implant.

Why would I need a dental implant in London?

There can be many reasons why someone would need a dental implant. Ultimately it’s always to replace a missing tooth, but the reason that tooth is missing can be varied. For example, someone may have needed a tooth extraction or surgical extraction, which could have been caused by a tooth that was no longer restorable (e.g. through deep decay or previous failed root canal treatment), or it could be that the tooth was extracted owing to accidental damage, or a crack or deep fracture. But ultimately, whilst there may be other options for some patients - such as a bridge or denture, dental implants are very popular because of their great aesthetic look and their ease of use once placed. Basically they behave like a normal tooth - you don’t need to remove them like a denture and they are often a great alternative to a bridge, or for when other solutions like this are not clinically viable.

What is a dental implant?

A dental implant is a small metal (usually titanium) unit that is placed into your jaw. It allows an implant crown to then be fitted using an abutment and implant screw to join them together. The implant crown itself is the ‘fake’ tooth that is visible. But, don’t worry, our competitive implant prices include the implant crown too!

This diagram below shows all the components:

How much does a dental implant in London cost?

Our prices for dental implants in London are really competitive. We offer Premium Implants (Snucone Brand) and Super Premium Implants (Straumann Brand):

Snucone is a well certified and researched brand http://www.snucone.com/en/company from South Korea - the cost for a Snucone Implant is £2250 per dental implant including the dental implant crown.

Straumann is a widely used brand from Switzerland. Straumann is well known and well regarded within the dental implant world. The cost for a Straumann Implant is £2750 per dental implant including the dental implant crown.

What is the procedure for a dental implant in London?

A dental implant is a procedure that should only be done by a suitably experienced and qualified Special Interest or Specialist Dentist (Implantologist). Before any implant your need to see our Implantologist for an Implant Consultation which is £75/c45 mins, where he can discuss options, review your mouth and clinical viability and answer any questions you may have.

The treatment is done over a period of time (which patients are happy about too as it breaks the appointment times and allows payment to made over a longer period when each stage is done).

There is the option of doing what’s known as ‘same day teeth’ which is much quicker, but typically for the majority of patients, we will follow the timelines below. If you are worried about having a gap in your teeth whilst you wait, we can make temporary dentures for you (at additional cost).

The first appointment is the Consultation

As soon as you and your mouth are ready to proceed, next is appointment two, which is the placement of the Implant – this takes around 90 minutes usually.

Around two weeks after this comes the third appointment. Appointment three is to review and remove stiches. This takes only around 20 minutes.

Next the patient needs to wait three months for the mouth to be take the implant and for everything to heal nicely. Appointment four is what is called Implant Impressions, and this is to start work on your new tooth – the implant crown.

Then two weeks after, is the last appointment - Appointment five. This is when your ‘new tooth’ the implant crown is fitted. It will look natural as we will have it made to the size, shape and shade to match your surrounding teeth. Et voilà – all done! Once it is there you’ll forget you ever had a gap at all!

How do I book a dental implant at tooth In Waterloo?

Like any treatment at tooth, we make it very easy to book a dental implant with us! To start the process you can contact us by pressing on the little button underneath, or your can even WhatsApp us! We’ll be in touch super soon and help you bridge the gap!

If you have any questions you can find out more about dental implants at tooth here or get in touch here.

How do I choose a good dentist?

Every day at tooth we get lots of emails from new patients or patients with questions before they choose a new dentist in London and we are always happy to help. They are asking things like, ‘I’m looking for a new dental practice near me, can you tell me some more information’. Or, questions like ‘I’m a nervous patient, how do I find a new dentist in London’.

Because of our location as a dental practice in Central London it’s common for people to have just moved into the area or have changed jobs who are looking for a good dentist near their office or home. So have a lot of experience dealing with new dental patients.

What should I look for when choosing a new dental practice?

This is a really important question - but thankfully it’s one that is easy to answer. There are many things that I would recommend to anyone looking for a new dental practice.

Here’s a helpful list:

• Look at the reviews

  • It’s so easy for any business to promise the world and under deliver. Or its easy for a business to be a bit flexible with the truth. That’s why Google Reviews are really helpful to anyone looking to change dentist or dental practice, or looking for a ‘dentist near me’ or a ‘dental hygienist near me’.

    At tooth we are so grateful to have over 500 genuine 5 Star Reviews! It’s a real honour for us as it means that we are doing exactly what we set out to do, that is offering amazing dental services at great prices and giving the best possible dental treatments and dental patient care and customer service.

    One thing with reviews that we always advise our potential patients - and this goes for any business. Look at where the majority of reviews sit (eg. 5 star). If a business has hundreds of 5 Star or high Reviews for example, then focus on these as this is the majority voice. Feel free to read the 1 Stars but always read the response from the business owners too as often the 1 Star reviews aren’t always what they seem. Personally if a business has lots of good reviews, I tend to ignore the outlying low reviews if there are just a couple.

    Another thing we say is to check if all of the business’s reviews feel genuine. That may sound hard to do or even unnecessary, but did you know unfortunately it’s actually possible to just buy good reviews online for a very minimal amount of money (don’t worry we are super ethical and never in a million years would do this!). The other way that businesses can create reviews for themselves is by asking friends and family to leave positive reviews in different names. But it’s usually fairly easy to understand which are real and which may be fake. You can do this by looking for patterns – e.g. if every review follows same structure, or if every single review mentions one person by name, which from experience isn’t that common for dental reviews. Also you can look to see if the majority of reviews have rating only and no words, and look to see if most reviews don’t mention anything identifiable - for example: ‘This is a great business, I am happy with their service’… basically, anything that occurs often in some guise which feels too generic.

• Check the website

  • Does the website have information on their that is helpful to you - mainly does it list prices of all the main treatments. If not, what could that dental practice be hiding - and why? At tooth, we never upsell and we never have hidden charges - we are a dental practice with clear and transparent pricing. We have nothing to hide at all. If you are looking at a dental website that doesn’t do this, then maybe there is a reason?
    
    Also think - does the website have pictures and profiles of the team. Do they all say - coming soon, or with no pictures - this may potentially mean that the practice may have a high turnover of clinical staff, which may in turn be a red flag. Personally I would always give much more importance to a dental practice’s website than their social media. Social media can be helpful for sure, but everyone knows that social media isn’t always real. That’s one of the reasons that tooth doesn’t spend too much time on social media (the other is because we are too busy serving our lovely patients as a priority!).

• Ask, how easy is it to contact the dental surgery?

  • Another thing which is easily as important from a patient perspective to clinical care is customer service. I’d always be thinking - is the dental practice in London easy to contact, do they respond quickly, do they answer the phone, do they give good responses to emails and calls - are they listening to the questions asked in the email or call, and helping as much as they can, and are they happy to answer questions?

• Listen to others you trust

  • And finally, finding a good dentist in London can be hard. We are blessed and grateful that many of our lovely patients have come to us because we were a recommended dentist in London. This means that their friends, family or work colleagues have been to tooth dental and were so happy that they told someone about it! There’s no greater recommendation for us than this and we really appreciate it when someone shares their positive experience at tooth with their closest loved ones.

I hope this helps and if you’re looking for a new dentist in Central London feel free to check all of the above on Google to see our lovely reviews, and the other pages at toothlondon.co.uk or to get in touch with any questions here.

Good luck!

Dr. Anna x