A replacement tooth you treat like a real one.

A dental implant is a small titanium post placed in the jawbone where a tooth is missing. Over the following months it fuses with the bone - a process called osseointegration - and becomes a fixed anchor. A connector called an abutment attaches to the post, and the visible tooth, usually a crown, attaches to that. Three parts: root, connector, tooth.

The part most people have not heard is why the root matters. Jawbone stays dense because tooth roots load it every time you chew; when a tooth is lost, the bone beneath it begins to shrink from disuse. A bridge or a conventional denture replaces the visible tooth but not the load, so the bone keeps receding under it. An implant replaces the root, not just the tooth. That is why the bone stays.

Dr. Jasjit Sidhu plans and places implants at the North Grafton office. He is a Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists, an implant education and research organization founded in 1972, and every case starts with a cone beam 3D scan so the bone can be measured and the position planned before anything is decided - you see the same images we do.

One missing tooth is usually a single tooth implant - one post, one crown, and the healthy neighbors are left untouched, which is the main advantage over a conventional bridge. Several missing teeth in a row can be carried on an implant-supported bridge, where two posts hold a span of teeth. A loose or unwearable denture can be stabilized with implant retained dentures that snap onto posts instead of resting on the gum. And a full arch can be replaced with All-on-X, a fixed bridge for the whole upper or lower jaw carried on a small number of implants.

Honesty about candidacy: implants need enough healthy bone to hold them, and not everyone starts with it. The scan settles that question, not guesswork. Where bone has receded, grafting can often rebuild it, which lengthens treatment but does not usually rule it out. Healing is slower and failure risk higher for heavy smokers and for uncontrolled diabetes, and we will tell you plainly if your situation stacks the odds badly rather than sell you a procedure. And if a case is beyond what should be handled in a general practice, it goes to an oral surgeon - we would rather refer than improvise.

On cost: implant treatment is priced by the case, because one post and one crown is a different project from a full arch. Ask for the number in writing before you decide, and for a walk through what your plan covers - see implant financing and insurance, or the plain-language implant cost guide.

An implant cannot get a cavity, but the gum and bone around it can still get sick. The condition, peri-implantitis, behaves like gum disease around a natural tooth: plaque builds at the gumline, the tissue inflames, and untreated it can cost the implant its bone support. The defense is unglamorous and completely effective for most people: brushing twice a day, cleaning between teeth, and keeping regular hygiene visits where the implant is checked and cleaned professionally. An implant is a reason to keep dental visits, not a graduation from them.

It is also worth knowing what can go wrong, because a practice that only talks about success rates is not telling you the whole story. Early failures, where the post does not fuse, are uncommon and usually show up in the first months; smoking and uncontrolled diabetes raise that risk, which is why we raise them with you before placement rather than after. Late problems are usually either the gum condition above or mechanical, a loosened screw or a worn crown, both of which are repairable without losing the implant when caught at routine checkups.

The temporary phase deserves a plain answer too, because "what do I eat for three months" is the question people are embarrassed to ask. For most single implants you eat normally within days, simply favoring the other side while the site settles; the healing implant sits under the gum or under a temporary and is not doing chewing work yet. Full arch cases follow a softer-food progression that we map out for you visit by visit. Nobody leaves this office wondering what they are allowed to have for dinner.

This is also why implant treatment here is planned rather than sold. The cone beam scan, the staged timeline, the honesty about bone and healing: each exists to stack the odds so the implant you get at this office is still working for you decades from now. If you already have an implant placed elsewhere and want it examined or maintained, that is welcome too.