Single Dental Implant

We start by listening to what is bothering you and examining your mouth, your bite, and the teeth around the gap.

Then we take two scans. A CBCT scan is a three-dimensional X-ray that shows your jawbone from every angle, including how much bone you have and exactly where your nerves and sinuses sit. An intraoral scan uses a small handheld camera to build a precise digital model of your teeth and gums, with no putty trays involved.

Both scans are uploaded into RealGUIDE, implant planning software that combines them into a single 3D model of your mouth. There, our team designs where your final tooth needs to sit for your smile and your bite to work properly, and only then plans the implant position underneath it to support that tooth.

Your tooth comes first, and the implant is placed to serve it.

Sometimes the scans show that your jaw does not yet have enough bone to hold an implant securely, or that a damaged tooth still needs to come out.

In those cases, we may recommend bone grafting or an extraction before placement. A graft adds volume to the area so the implant has solid support, and it needs a few months to heal before we move ahead.

Because we know from the planning stage exactly where the implant needs to go, we know precisely where that bone is needed and how much. You are not waiting through an extra step that turns out to be unnecessary.

Using the plan from RealGUIDE, we design a custom surgical guide and 3D-print it on our own printers here in the office.

A surgical guide is a small, custom-fitted template that sits over your teeth during the procedure. It has an opening that directs the placement to the exact angle, depth, and position we planned on screen. It turns the digital plan into something physical that steers the actual surgery.

Because the position is already decided before we begin, placement is quicker and more precise. There is less need to open up the surrounding tissue, which is why most patients report minimal discomfort during the procedure and a faster recovery afterward than they expected. Local anesthesia is standard, and sedation is available if you would like it.

Over the next three to six months, your jawbone grows around the implant and locks it in place. This process is called osseointegration, and it is what makes an implant permanent rather than something that sits on top of the gum.

There is nothing you need to do during this stage beyond normal brushing and flossing. We check your progress along the way, with the same team seeing you each time.

Once the implant has fused, a short procedure attaches the abutment, the small connector that joins the implant to your crown.

We then take another intraoral scan of the area. Because we already know the tooth position we designed at the beginning, your crown is crafted to match that plan rather than to whatever position the implant happened to end up in.

We place your custom porcelain crown and check the fit, the bite, and the way it looks against the teeth on either side.

The crown is shaped, shaded, and textured to match your natural teeth, so it does not stand out.

The tooth you see now is the same one we designed on screen before any part of the procedure began.