Missing teeth can have a real impact on how well you can chew, or how clearly you can speak. They can also change the way you look, and not in a good way. In Australia, people have two main options when looking to replace a tooth, dental implants or dental bridges, but it’s how long they last that usually decides for people. Both can put things back to how they were before, but when you look at the actual data and all the clinical research, it’s clear that they perform in different ways over time. Getting your head around what’s really behind each treatment can help you make a more informed decision based on what will really work in the long run, rather than just what some company is saying.
Long-term success is all about individual variables, how well you look after your teeth, the health of your jawbone, whether or not you smoke, and how well you take care of the work that’s been done to your teeth. Usually the best way to figure all this out is to get a proper chat with a dental pro, someone who really knows what they’re talking about like a dentist Guildford. Still, all the research that’s been done on this topic is really useful. It lets you see exactly how dental implants and bridges compare over a period of five, ten and twenty years.
Understanding How Dental Implants and Bridges Really Work
Dental implants do exactly what they say on the tin, they replace both the root and crown of a missing tooth. The actual implant is put in surgically and the jawbone grows around it in a process called osseointegration. Once it’s healed you can put a custom crown on top. That’s it really. Bridges, on the other hand, are designed to fill the gap by fixing an artificial tooth onto the two teeth on either side of the gap. Those supporting teeth get a bit of work done on them, and they get crowns on top to hold the bridge in place. Faster than an implant, but it’s only as good as the teeth on either side of it.
Long-Term Survival Rates: What the Experts Say
The proof in the pudding is what the results of all these studies have shown. Dental implants are way more likely to last over a decade. One recent review found that after ten years, implants are still going strong at 96.4%, or even a bit better than that when you look at the conservative figures. By comparison, all the research on bridges tells us that the chances of them lasting 10 years are much lower, around 80 83%. Which means in real terms, dental implants are way more likely to still be going strong in a decade.
The Impact on Healthy Teeth
One of the biggest drawbacks of traditional bridges is what they do to the healthy teeth on either side of the gap you’re trying to fill. When you put a bridge in, you often end up taking a lot of tooth away from the teeth next door, even when those teeth are healthy.
Bone Preservation and Oral Health Stability
Jawbone preservation is an area where dental implants have a clear advantage. When you lose a tooth, the bone around it starts to disappear pretty quickly because it’s no longer getting the stimulation it needs from the act of chewing. Dental implants let functional forces pass through the bone, which actually helps keep the bone volume intact. Studies have found that over a decade or more, dental implants typically don’t lose more than 1.3mm of bone at the margin. A pretty small loss.
Cost Versus Lifetime Value
In Australia, a single dental implant will set you back somewhere between 4k and 7k, which depends on how complicated the work is going to be, whether you need bone grafting, and where in the country you are. At first glance, bridges seem to be the more affordable option, you are looking at anything from 2.5k to 5k. When you take into account how long they last, the maths changes.
Complications That Influence Lifespan
Neither option is completely free of complications. Dental implants can run into trouble with peri-implantitis, screws coming loose, or the implant itself failing. Most reviews show that implant-related problems are pretty rare as long as you follow the maintenance routine to the letter.
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