Dental Implant : Immediate v Delayed Implants

There has been a lot of talk lately about what we in the profession call "Immediate Load" dental implants. Under such names as "Teeth in a Day", Teeth Now" or "Teeth Today", dentists have been advocating placing implants in patients and delivering the tooth restorations at the same time or within a day or two. The standard way of providing implant teeth for patients has been to place the implants and wait for 3 to 6 months before providing the tooth restorations and that is still the way the vast majority of implant dental restorations are performed. It is easy to see why people might feel that it is very desirable to get their teeth right away, but is it really in the patient's interest to do this.

This module will try to take a very objective look at dental implants and the question of Immediate v Delayed placement of the tooth restorations. I will leave it up to you, the reader (be you dentist or patient) to decide as to which methodology is proper with today's technology. . .SRD

By Dr. S. Robert Davidoff