Dental Blog David Madruga Gonzalez -

Solutions for missing teeth

If you have missing teeth, then you know that you can feel insecure about your appearance or experience difficulties with everyday activities such as eating and speaking. You may have considered removeable appliances, but worried that they would be loose, inconvenient to clean or uncomfortable. If you have resigned yourself to the difficulties of living with gaps, you might like to hear about dental implants.

Many people have restored their quality of life using this established procedure for replacing teeth. In Marylebone, nervous dental implant patients can benefit too. At David Madruga, we pride ourselves on a relaxed, reassuring approach, combined with techniques such as conscious sedation to make sure that you get treatment you need.

Care for anxious patients

For up to 13% of people in western countries, severe fear of dentists or dentophobia is a very real problem. This can prevent some people from ever visiting their dentist, and make it a very unpleasant experience for others. In fact, this is the main reason that people avoid having the treatment they need. Some people feel out of control, while others have had a bad experience or simply get nervous at the thought of attending an appointment or having work carried out.

Sadly, many people would rather endure the discomfort and inconvenience of missing teeth rather than seek help. If this sounds like you, we can help. We want to make treatment accessible so we ensure that you feel as comfortable as possible.

What happens if I choose dental implants?

The first stage is a consultation in which we assess the condition of your jaw and mouth, plan a treatment programme, including sedation options if necessary, and answer any questions that you might have. The implants are metal screws that are placed into the jaw under a local anaesthetic. During healing, the bones and tiny blood vessels of the jaw mesh around the implants, holding them securely in place. When they have settled, they are used as a secure base to support a replacement tooth, a whole set of dentures, crowns or bridges. The implants function just like the roots of natural teeth, so you will be able to enjoy your favourite foods and an improved appearance.

A new future for your teeth

Our natural teeth tend to do their jobs with minimal fuss. They enable us to bite into food, chew it, and display a nice smile afterwards. When we lose them, we realise how much we relied on them. Temporary replacements can mimic the appearance of lost teeth, but they often don’t perform as we’d like them to, and they can be awkward to maintain.

Dr David Madruga Gonzalez has been solving the problems caused by missing teeth for many years. At his practice in Marylebone, advanced dental implant technology allows him to replace lost teeth with fully-functioning substitutes. These contemporary teeth fully integrate with your jawbone in a process called osseointegration. This means your replacement teeth have a long-lasting stability that temporary replacements can’t provide.

Lasting changes to your dental experience

Having dental implants can transform your quality of life. If you’re used to wearing dentures, you can wave goodbye to the messy adhesives that keep them in place. Once your implants are installed in your mouth, that’s where they’ll stay. You can relax and enjoy yourself at the dinner table, focussing on the deliciousness of the food without the nagging worry that your teeth might come unstuck and cause embarrassment.

Another advantage of this procedure is that it will help to keep the underlying firmness of your facial appearance. One of the effects of long-term temporary denture usage can be a deterioration in the face’s bone structure. After many years of this, you might develop a sunken, unhealthy appearance. Dental implants engage with the bone structure, ensuring it maintains its natural density.

A range of applications

It’s not just decay that leads to the need for new teeth. You can lose one suddenly, for example while playing sports. Implant dentistry will replace this lost tooth with one that looks and feels natural.

Dr David Madruga Gonzalez will talk you through the details of this life-changing procedure in a relaxing consultation. Careful dental measurements are taken to maximise the effectiveness of your treatment. After the work is done, you’ll be able to enjoy the oral health benefits for decades to come.

F.E.A.R.

People in personal growth circles love to turn words into acronyms. With F.E.A.R., you get to choose between False Evidence Appearing Real and Face Everything And Recover. In other words, fear is a feeling. It’s a negative feeling about the future.

The thing is with fear, it’s a very powerful feeling that can stop people doing things they know would be great for them. One thing it stops people doing is getting dental implants. This is such as shame as, in fact, having surgery on the jawbone is a lot less painful than work on the teeth as there are far fewer nerve endings.

For some reason, nervous patients and dental implants combined can create fear. But feeling scared, even more than scared, is no reason not to go through with a dental procedure that can be completely life changing.

At David Madruga in Marylebone, we’d hate for anyone who comes to us for dental implants to decide that the procedure is just too nerve-wracking to go through with.

Conscious sedation

We are big fans of conscious sedation here at David Madruga. This is a way for our patients to go through dental implant surgery in a completely relaxed way, not feeling any pain, not really aware of what’s going on, but able to respond should we need to talk to you; not knocked out cold with a general anaesthetic.

Oral sedation

This is the lighter of the two sedation techniques we offer. You take a pill an hour or so before your appointment, so that by the time you lie back in the chair, the sedation is beginning to take effect.

Intravenous sedation

Much faster-acting because we administer the sedative directly into your bloodstream, and will monitor you throughout treatment. It is a deeper sedation that might send you to sleep, but you can be woken up if necessary.

Whichever type of sedation you choose, you will need to bring someone with you to make sure you get home safely, which is what we always recommend for patients having implant surgery.

Do call us to find out more about sedation and how it can help you through implant surgery.

Ask the experts

When you know something is wrong with your car, but you don’t know what you need to do to make it a thing of beauty and a joy to drive again, you ask a car expert. The same is true with teeth and mouths. It’s very easy to carry on for years with teeth that don’t look great and maybe even have a few issues, other than decay or gum disease, that cause discomfort. You might know how this feels. You don’t smile as much as you might. You certainly don’t tend to roar with laughter. If you have removable false teeth or a fixed bridge, you no longer eat your favourite foods.

Full Smile Makeover in Marylebone All in all, not having a great smile, for whatever reason, can be an experience that each day, in subtle but undeniable ways, chips away at your self-esteem.

So, treat your teeth like your beautiful but battered old car and take it to an expert to find out how they can restore it to its full gleaming former glory. Or, if your smile was never an Audi, find out how it can be turned into one.

What’s on offer?

An expert, like David Madruga can give you what is known as a full smile makeover in Marylebone. This is a cover all term for a combination of cosmetic dentistry treatments to bring your smile to peak condition.

You may need to have some teeth straightened. Doing so not only makes them look better, they will last longer and all your teeth will wear better when the pressure of chewing is evenly distributed.

Perhaps your teeth are also chipped and worn. They can be repaired by covering them with veneers or composite bonding. Back teeth may need something stronger like crowns.

Discoloured teeth, as long as there are no prosthetics such as veneers, can often be whitened.

If you have a gummy smile, you might need to have gum contouring to bring it into ratio with your teeth.

How these treatments are combined and in what order they are performed is vital to the success of your treatment, and you will receive a treatment plan with the order and cost of treatments needed to make over your smile.

Immediate placement dental implants in Marylebone

Following years of development and dental practice, dental implants are now part of routine dental therapy and should be considered as an option in every treatment that requires tooth replacement. Unlike other tooth replacement options, dental implants replace missing teeth permanently and restore your oral function.

At David Madruga, we are pleased to offer immediate placement dental implants in Marylebone. Tooth extraction followed by immediate implant placement is now a viable option. This treatment is ideal for patients who want to avoid further bone loss and reduce surgery time and expenses.

Why choose dental implants?

Dental implants are small titanium posts that are surgically inserted into the jawbone to replace missing tooth roots. Once in place, they tend to fuse with the jawbone and encourage the growth of new bone tissue. Unlike conventional dentures and bridges, dental implants restore your biting and chewing power to its full potential and look and feel just like your natural teeth.

Implants are a safe and effective treatment for patients who wish to replace their missing teeth permanently. Much like natural teeth, dental implants will last for as long as take good care of them.

Immediate placement of dental implants

In some cases, dentists are able to remove a failing tooth, fix a dental implant into place on the same day and restore the dental implant with crown or other restoration in the same day. This way, patients don’t have to wait for long periods of time for the bone to heal, before they have their restorations placed on top of their dental implants.

Immediate placement and loading of dental implants is a fairly new procedure in implant dentistry and does not apply to all patients. In order to be eligible you need to have sufficient bone to ensure implant stability, good health and a lack of habits such as smoking.

Immediate implants are ideal for single tooth replacements, especially for patients who have lost or broken a tooth due to an accident or trauma. The procedure is quite simple and our dental team will give you instructions on how to look after your implant.

Same Day Teeth in Marylebone – all you need to know

If you have lost several teeth, it is now possible to go from missing teeth to having a fully functional and aesthetically pleasing smile in just one visit to the dentist. If you want to replace your missing teeth without having to wait for months, as it is typical with traditional dental implants, then Same Day Teeth at David Madruga in Marylebone may be the right treatment option for you. Same Day Teeth is an innovative procedure providing patients with fully functional teeth in a few hours.

Why choose dental implants?

When a tooth falls out, from crown to root, the section of the jaw that supported the tooth has no real purpose and gradually starts to deteriorate. If not replaced, missing teeth increase the pressure on the remaining teeth leading to gaps between teeth, tooth movement and decay.

Unlike other tooth restoration options that merely sit on the gums without interacting with the jawbone, dental implants fuse to the jawbone and prevent its deterioration. These small titanium screw-shaped posts are surgically inserted into the jawbone and replace the root of a missing natural tooth. Your dentist will place the implant (or implants) in the bone of the upper or the lower jaw and leave it to serve as a steady foundation for the replacement teeth, whether there are crowns, bridges or dentures.

Same Day Teeth

Traditional dental implants are very effective but often require many appointments (lasting from several weeks to a few months), before the replacement teeth are fitted. Same Day Teeth, on the other hand, are much quicker since they require a single appointment for replacing the full upper or lower set of teeth. This is because Same Day Teeth do not require as many dental implants – depending on the quantity and the quality of the jawbone, your dentist will use from 4-6. These implants are also smaller in size than regular implants and can be angled in a particular way to ensure that biting and chewing forces and evenly distributed in your mouth. Once in place, your dentist will secure a customised denture on top of them, which will stay in place. This way, you needn’t worry about problems such as slippage.

All you need to know about dental implants maintenance

Unlike other tooth restoration treatments, dental implants can last years, decades or even a lifetime if they are properly cared for. Dental implants are made of a strong and durable material, titanium, which is compatible with the human body. Once in place, they fuse with the jawbone and encourage the growth of new bone tissue.

Even if you need to change the replacement teeth on top of your implants, you can rest assured that your dental implants will last for a very long time if you follow some simple maintenance guidelines. At David Madruga in Marylebone, we are here to help you take care of your dental implants and monitor their progress. Dr David Madruga, our lead dentist, has a special interest in implant restorations and is passionate about providing his patients with the best dental care.

Maintain your dental implants at home

On the bright side, dental implants are very easy to maintain – as a matter of fact you can treat them just like your regular teeth. Just brush and floss like your natural teeth at least twice a day. However, beware because brushing and flossing too hard around your dental implants can cause receding gums. Dr Madruga will demonstrate to you the proper brushing techniques for dental implants. Any medium or soft toothbrush will do, but you purchase a special toothbrush specifically designed for dental implants maintenance if you wish.

If you have suffered from gum disease in the past or you have controlled diabetes, your dentist will recommend an antibacterial mouthwash as well. However, do not use mouthwash unless you ask your dentist, as some brands contain harsh chemicals that can be damaging to your gums. Soft tissue maintenance is important for the preservation of your dental implants.

Dental check-ups and cleanings

Another important thing to remember is to visit the dentist regularly for dental check-ups and cleanings. Your dentist will examine your dental implants carefully and monitor their progress over time. They will also examine the gums around your dental implants for signs of gum disease. Professional cleanings will also help your implants remain strong and healthy for longer.

Sinus lift for dental implants in Marylebone

Dental implants are a viable tooth replacement option for many patients, yet their success and longevity is directly related to the quantity and quality of the jawbone that remains after a tooth is lost. The rear upper jawbone, in particular, is one of the most difficult areas to successfully place dental implants because of its proximity to the sinuses.

Dental Implants in Marylebone Sinuses are essentially airways above your nose, which facilitate breathing. Some of the roots of your upper teeth reach into your sinuses. When these teeth are gone, only a thin bone divider parts your sinus cavity from your mouth. As this bone heals, the sinus increases in size, further decreasing the bone available for implant surgery. Fortunately, this process can be halted with a sinus lift operation.

Experienced implant dentist, Dr David Madruga in Marylebone, performs all types dental implant supporting procedures including sinus lift surgery. Dr Madruga has undergone extensive post-graduate training in order to carry out a sinus lift procedure. His knowledge and experience ensure the high success rates of the treatment in our practice. Unlike other dental procedures, a sinus lift is a complex surgical procedure and not without risks, therefore, it should not be performed by dentists without the appropriate training.

Understanding the necessity of a sinus lift

Patients who wish to replace missing teeth with dental implants in the upper arch at the back of their mouth, often find that there is no sufficient bone in the area. Dental implants need an adequate amount of bone tissue to hold them securely in place and fuse with the jawbone.

A sinus lift operation artificially increases the bone in the upper arch where the sinuses are located. If there is not enough bone for dental implants, the floor of the sinus cavity is raised in order to create more depth.

A sinus lift always precedes implant operation and can make the implant placement possible. This way, people with bone loss can enjoy the multiple benefits of dental implants.

Get in touch

If you want to know more about sinus lift surgery and dental implants in Marylebone, please contact us today. During your consultation appointment, a dental 3D scan will determine whether you require a sinus lift or not.

Nervous dental implant patients in Marylebone

Dental implants are a great way to replace missing teeth due to their many benefits, but what if your dental phobia is the reason you lost your teeth in the first place?

At the practice of Dr David Madruga, the goal is for patients to feel calm, comfortable and safe. Dr Madruga leads a highly-experienced team in the field of conscious sedation and has successfully helped to develop many conscious sedation referral clinics across the UK.

Nervous Dental Implants Patients He is a firm believer that everybody deserves a healthy and beautiful smile, which is why he offers treatment under sedation for patients who are afraid of the dentist.

Common causes of dental phobia

Dental phobia is a very common issue among patients, and many people will attribute their dental fear to a past, bad experience. For many patients, fear of the dentist is associated with bad childhood memories. However, a bad experience is not the only reason for dental phobia. Sometimes, fear of the dentist is associated with prior negative experiences as well as an embarrassment over the condition of one’s teeth and mouth.

Dr Madruga will pinpoint what he thinks is causing your fears and talk about it in order to ease your concerns. He will never judge you – on the contrary, he will go the extra mile to ease your fears and help you achieve optimal oral health. If your fear has led to tooth loss, or your teeth are too badly damaged to be restored, dental implants may be the ideal solution.

Implant operation

Operation for dental implants is quite simple. Your dentist will attach the dental implants in your jawbone with a minor operation here at our Marylebone practice. Once in place, dental implants fuse with your jawbone, acting as tooth roots. After a healing period which may last a few weeks, permanent new teeth will be attached on top of your dental implants.

Treatment under sedation

Dr Madruga offers conscious sedation which is unlike any anaesthetic you have received in the past. Using either oral or intravenous sedation, you will be awake during the operation, feeling very relaxed and not experiencing any pain or discomfort. Conscious sedation is very safe and is only administered by our experienced dentists.

Full mouth dental implants

Many patients wearing dentures frequently complain about a lack of confidence in smiling and eating. This is due to the worry that their dentures will move or even worse, fall out. This can be made worse when there are not enough remaining teeth to help fix and hold a denture in place.

dental-implants-in-marylebone The latest solution is to have dental implants here at David Madruga in Marylebone in Central London, to hold dentures firmly in place, creating your full mouth rehabilitation using fixed implant dentures. They can immensely improve chewing ability, stability and help prevent bone loss while promoting denture comfort. Comfort can increase as the denture itself can be much smaller than a conventional denture.

Also, as the denture can gain support from your gums, only half the number of implants are needed to support the denture when compared to a partial implant bridge, which can be a significant saving in costs.

At David Madruga, we believe that dental implants can be more aesthetically pleasing and easier to maintain than traditional dentures. The loss of bone that accompanies traditional dentures can lead to the collapse of the jawbone and an unattractive smile, as well as making it difficult to eat certain foods.

The procedure

Firstly, your dental implants, which look like little screws, are placed into your jaw. Then, over the next two to six months, the implants and the bone can bond together to form anchors for your artificial teeth. This is called the osseointegration period.

A second step of the procedure is necessary to uncover the implants and attach extensions. These temporary healing caps, along with several connecting devices that allow multiple crowns to attach to the implants, complete the foundation on which your new teeth will be positioned. Your gums will be allowed to heal for a week or two following this procedure.

Finally, full bridges or full dentures will be created for you and attached to little metal posts, called abutments. After a short amount of healing time, you will experience restored confidence in your smile and your ability to chew and speak once again.

Every case is different so your dental professional at David Madruga will work with you to determine the best treatment plan for you.