Dental implants – frequently asked questions
If you are thinking about getting dental implants in St John’s Wood, you probably have plenty of questions. This is an advanced procedure you can’t go back from, so it is worth making sure you’ve considered everything before going ahead. At Aura Dental, we are happy to answer any questions you may have about dental implants in St John’s Wood.
How many teeth can implants replace?
Whether you are missing just one tooth or a whole set, dental implants in St John’s Wood can work for you. A single implant can replace a single tooth, or a few teeth in a row. If you have missing or failing teeth, a full arch can be replaced with a fixed bridge, supported by 4-6 implants.
Can anyone have dental implants in St John’s Wood?
If you are considering dental implants, the best thing to do is come in for a consultation. We will take x-rays to assess whether your jawbone is dense enough to support the implants. We will also look at the general health of your mouth to see if you need any treatment prior to the implant procedure. If you have had dentures for a while, your jaw may have receded, making it unable to support the implants. In this case, the dentist will talk to you about bone grafts.
Are dental implants expensive?
It’s true that dental implants aren’t cheap, but keep in mind that this is a lifetime investment. Looked after carefully, your implants should last the rest of your life. At Aura Dental, we offer a monthly finance option so you can spread the cost.
What are the advantages to dental implants?
There are many reasons to invest in dental implants in St John’s Wood. They can do wonders for your self-confidence. Many people get embarrassed about their teeth, or lack of, as they get older. Dental implants can give you a beautiful smile to be proud of. Implants also have an advantage when it comes to eating. There are lots of food that denture wearers have to avoid, but if you have implants you will find you can eat whatever you like. Come in for a consultation if you want to find out more.
Braces – your questions answered
There are many different types of braces available, and the choice can sometimes be confusing. If you’re thinking of getting braces in St John’s Wood, here at Aura Dental we can help you decide which type is best for you.
Types of braces
The type of braces best suited to you will depend on your teeth and bite, how long you are willing to wear them for, your budget and your lifestyle. Classic braces with brackets and wires are no longer the only choice. Braces in St John’s Wood have come a long way in recent years, and there are much more discreet options available now.
Six Months Smiles are braces that use brackets and wires, but they are aimed mainly at adjusting the front, most visible teeth, and results can be achieved in just 6 months. The braces are made from clear or white parts, so they are much more discreet than traditional braces.
Lingual braces are fixed to the backs of the teeth, so when viewed from the front they are practically invisible. Removable aligners are also an option.
How long do braces take to work?
The time you will need to wear braces in St John’s Wood will depend on the type of braces and the amount of adjustment required. Aligners can work on the front teeth in just 6-12 weeks, Six Months Smiles braces take around 6 months, as suggested by the name, and more complex issues with traditional braces can take up to 2 years to fully adjust.
Are braces expensive?
Again, it depends in part on the type of braces or aligners you choose. Here at Aura Dental we can offer a monthly finance option for braces in St John’s Wood, making getting braces much more affordable. If you are thinking of getting braces, talk to our staff about finance options.
Do braces hurt?
Braces work by gently forcing your teeth to slowly change position over time, so there is bound to be some discomfort, but it’s not as painful as you might think. There can be some soreness just after the braces have been fitted, and after adjustments, but a good dentist will make sure this is kept to a minimum.
Invisalign in St John’s Wood: hassle-free teeth straightening
The thing about braces is that they are a bit of a pain to wear. They’re not as much of a pain as in the 70s and 80s when they were enormous and made of serious metal and took over almost your entire face, let alone your mouth, but they’re still a bit of a drag.
That’s what puts most people off getting their teeth straightened, the idea of all that extra time spent poking around trying to remove bits of your lunch (memo to self: don’t eat spinach) from behind the brackets.
Then there’s the sheer embarrassment of being a serious grown-up for goodness sake, with metal all over your teeth like you were still only in year 8. It’s not a good look now you’re an office manager/traffic warden/global superstar.
If either or, more likely both, of the above are putting you off getting straight teeth then have we got some good news for you. At Aura Dental, we can fit you with Invisalign in St John’s Wood, and no one, except maybe your mum and your best beloved, will be any the wiser.
Never heard of Invisalign in St John’s Wood?
We’re not surprised, that’s how good these very thin, transparent mouth guard-like aligners are at stealth straightening. They hug your teeth like a second layer of enamel and once they are in place, they are pretty much invisible. Hence the name, Invis-align. Clever, eh?
The great thing is that not only can no one see them, so you get to look like a grown-up all the way through your treatment, but you also won’t have to spend hours flossing and brushing round your aligners. Nor will you have to give up spinach or any other foods you love.
This is because Invisalign aligners are made to be removed when you eat or drink anything other than plain water. Take them out, eat that spinach, clean your teeth, put them back in. Just make sure you wear them for at least 20 hours a day to stay on schedule with your treatment, which, by the way, takes a year on average.
MOUTH CANCER AWARENESS – All You Need to Know About Mouth Cancer
Mouth cancer can be labelled as abnormal cell growth within the mouth. Mouth cancer can affect any area of the mouth including jaws, lips, tongue, gums, tonsils and salivary glands. All of these tissues within the mouth are layered by soft cells called squamous cells. It’s these cells that come to be malevolent during mouth cancer issues. Thus, mouth cancer can also be called squamous cell carcinoma.
Squamous carcinoma is the cancer commonly known to affect the oral cavity. Mouth cancer, which often called oral cancer, begins in the tissues and further affects the mouth, tongue, and lips. Additionally, it can go as far as affecting the roof of the mouth, the floor of the mouth, gums, or the cheek lining.
Mouth cancers look a lot like each other when observed with a microscope. The cells become malevolent and tend to spread quickly in the mouth and other parts of the body.
CAUSES OF MOUTH CANCER
There are many conditions, habits and lifestyle choices that can cause mouth cancer. Some examples are smoking, chewing tobacco, consuming alcohol, and exposure to dangerous UV radiation. There are also other causes of mouth cancer which includes Kaposi’s sarcoma related with AIDS, Candida infection within the mouth, and lack of nutrition i.e. diets without the presence of vitamin A, C and E, selenium iron and zinc.
The common causes of mouth cancers include:
- Alcohol:
Excessive intake of alcohol drinks increases the possibility of mouth cancer.
- Smoking and Use of Tobacco:
Approximately 75% of mouth cancer patients are tobacco users (including the alleged ‘smokeless’ tobacco) and smokers in general.
- Combination of Alcohol and Smoking:
Drinking and smoking together keeps you open and vulnerable to mouth cancer.
- Poor Dieting:
Studies have proved that consuming foods low in vegetables and fruits may expose you to the dangers of developing mouth cancer. Hence, consuming foods with high vegetables and fruits may guide you against so many types of cancer, especially mouth cancer.
- Exposing to Sunlight:
Exposure to heat and sunlight for a long period of time is also a contributing factor in skin and mouth cancers.
THE SYMPTOMS – HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE MOUTH CANCER?
A specialist can identify mouth cancer by a variety of symptoms. However, it is necessary that you go for a thorough dental check-up as soon as you notice any unusual changes, so as to ascertain if what you’re experiencing is mouth cancer.
Aura Dental is a professional oral health clinic where you can have your regular oral check-ups and examinations. For additional benefits, we include mouth cancer screenings as part of our standard general check-ups. Thus, if you need a thorough dental examination, Aura Dental is the ideal place for you.
Mouth cancer symptoms are often painless and looks a lot like other, non-hazardous oral symptoms. Our Dentists are capable of identifying the changes in your mouth which you may not notice.
The following are some signs that should prompt a dental visit immediately:
- Sores that won’t heal
- Change of colour, mostly red and white with patches
- Coarse spots in the mouth that won’t heal
- Bleeding from the mouth
- Difficulty wearing dentures
- Loose teeth
- Difficulty or pain moving jaw
- Lump-like gatherings
- Difficulty in talking, swallowing or chewing
- Numbness around the mouth
- Earache
While gum diseases, infections, and many other mouth problems can show similar reactions, it remains a top priority to visit a dentist immediately if you notice any irregular changes within the mouth region.
If any unusual changes are seen in the mouth region, we will refer you to a qualified specialist to conduct a diagnostic test of the affected area. In mouth cancer cases, identifying the problem quick and early can increase your chances of getting cured, this is why we recommend that you visit Aura Dental for regular dental examinations.
Mouth cancer can be caused by many factors. All forms of tobacco use can hugely result to mouth cancer, including the supposed ‘smokeless’ tobacco. In addition, those who indulge in binge drinking of alcohol have more chances of getting mouth cancer than the non-alcoholic drinkers. Also, long exposure to heat or sunlight is also associated with mouth cancer. A little above 25% of mouth cancer patients are not alcoholic drinkers and have never smoked.
Our dentists can help identify anything suspicious and refer you to a specialist to conduct a biopsy in a hospital setting to approve or deny the occurrence of the disease. Once it is verified that there are cancerous cells the doctor will advise the best course of treatment.
Simply because you notice a sore within the mouth region doesn’t mean you have mouth cancer. However, visiting Aura Dental regularly to examine the mouth will ensure that anything suspicious is caught in time, potentially preventing any new development of the disease. By thoroughly examining the mouth, neck, lips, gums and throat at least once every month can help you detect anything that may seem suspicious at the early stages. Quick and early interference is vital in order to increase the chance of successful treatment.
If you start to notice symptoms of mouth cancer after the examination with your dentist, quickly raise an alarm. Also, be ready to act in case any sores start to develop within the mouth region. If you notice these symptoms and they don’t show signs of healing in two weeks, book an appointment as soon as you’re able. Irregular sores that are non-cancerous will be severe in the early stages, but will heal gradually. They ought to be completely healed within a week or two.
At times mouth cancer sores appear very little and difficult to notice. Along with regular self-examinations, booking an appointment with our dentists for regular check-ups at least once or twice yearly is very important. This will guarantee the quick and early discovery of new, unusual developments that may come up.
Along with sores in the mouth, there are many other signs to look out for in cases of oral cancer that requires immediate examination. These signs include white and red spots within the mouth, bleeding from the mouth, swelling around the mouth region or a lump-like gathering around the neck or jaw may indicate the presence of cancer. Also, if you find it hard moving the mouth region, or you feel pain while speaking, swallowing or chewing, these are serious signs of mouth cancer. In case you notice any of these signs, you should quickly visit our clinic for an immediate check-up.
IS MOUTH CANCER CURABLE?
Just like every other cancer, mouth cancer can be completely cured at the early stages. As cancer moves from one part of the body to another, a complete recovery can be very difficult in the later stages. If the disease is spotted at the early stage, the possibilities of a total cure are high, and you also have a better chance of recovery if the affected area is small. However, many people tend to notice this disease at the later stage, because they don’t see their doctor or dentist regularly for examination, thereby making it difficult to obtain a complete cure.
Mouth cancer hardly ever causes pain at the initial stages. Irregular cell growth normally appears as smooth patches. A cancer sore appears like an ulcer, frequently with a gloom in the middle. The centre of the cancer sore might be white, yellow, or grey, having red edges.
MOUTH CANCER PROGNOSIS
Approximately 34,000 people are identified with mouth cancer every year. Sadly, over 65% of people with the disease won’t notice the problem until the later stages when it is difficult to be cured. Lack of public awareness of the likelihood for mouth cancer is among the reasons people fail to notice the symptoms early. Many people also fail to notice it early because they do not
visit a dentist for regular mouth cancer examination.
MOUTH CANCER TREATMENT
If you reside in London count yourself lucky for having the opportunity to access quality dental care services.
Aura dental is a patient-friendly, private dental clinic that provides professional dental services, including mouth cancer awareness and mouth cancer screenings as part of our standard general check-ups.
At Aura Dental, we keep an eye on your oral health and regular examinations allow us to see any new unusual developments in the mouth. If we notice any irregularities, we will refer you to a specialist centre in the hospital to perform biopsies of the affected area. The tests that are essential to determine the cancer stage are X-ray, endoscopy, CT scan and MRI scan.
We aim to increase awareness in the possibility of mouth cancer cases, that is why we have included a cancer screen as part of our general check-ups.
For oral dental care which includes oral surgery, paediatric dentistry, restorative dentistry, and orthodontics – we got you covered!
Book an examination with us today!
Email: www.auradentallondon.com
Address: Aura Centre, Charlbert Street, St John’s Wood, London NW8 7BT, UK
Phone: 0207 722 0040
What are you letting yourself in for?
Dental implants in St John’s Wood, with your trusty team at Aura Dental. You know you want them because nothing gives you your chew and your smile back like dental implants. But when it comes to the treatment, do you really know what you are letting yourself in for?
You’ve probably heard the stories of how dental implant surgery goes on for days and days, and uses 14 different sizes of drill to make the artificial sockets for it. Not to mention how people couldn’t eat anything but very thin soup for weeks afterwards. No wonder you are full of trepidation. Really, it’s a wonder you are even considering having dental implants in St John’s Wood. Can it really be that bad? No, of course not. Those are the myths. This is the reality:
The pain
People go on about how getting dental implants was more painful than childbirth, but the truth is that it’s no worse than getting a big filling, not even as bad as root canal therapy or an extraction. This is because we are working on your jawbone, where there are very few nerve endings, so there’s nothing much to convey feelings of pain to your brain. Getting work done on your teeth involves far more nerves. We can numb you very effectively for dental implants with a local anaesthetic.
Afterwards, you will need no more than over-the-counter painkillers to get you through the next day or 2.
The time
It does take an hour or 2 to put in dental implants and we recognise that this can seem like a lifetime in the dentist’s chair, especially if you are one of the many people who have a dental phobia. That’s why we are very happy to give you either oral or intravenous sedation. Sedation deeply relaxes you so that you float through the treatment. Indeed, if you have IV sedation, you may well doze off and not wake up until it’s all over.
The food
You do need to be on a liquid diet while your mouth heals. After that, it’s a soft food diet while the dental implants in St John’s Wood integrate with your jawbone.
Look! No gap!
Having gaps in your teeth doesn’t look good, especially if those gaps are at the front. Or maybe you have lost, or are losing, all your teeth and you want dental implants in St John’s Wood, but don’t’ want to be left with no teeth at all for months while your dental implants integrate with your jawbone.
Dental implants in St John’s Wood best mimic the natural teeth you have lost. They have replacement roots as well as crowns, whereas dentures and bridges only replace the crowns. This means you get superior stability, with no worries about teeth slipping or sliding around, and no need to give up the use of healthy teeth to support your false ones, as happens with bridges.
The thing about integration
However, the process that you have to go through in order to get your dental implants in St John’s Wood involves a period of several weeks when the implant we have inserted into specially created channels in your jawbone is integrating with the bone around it. During this time, as the bone grows new cells all over the implants, you cannot use the implants to bite and chew with.
Normally what happens is that, during the integration period, you have a gap in your mouth. It doesn’t look good and it can seem like integration goes on forever, but if you are having all of your teeth on one arch replaced, there is a way round this, with a technique called teeth in a day.
What is teeth in a day?
If you are having all your teeth replaced, or are replacing your dentures with dental implants, we replace them with either 4 implants on the lower arch, or 6 on the upper arch. Then we attach a temporary bridge to the implants, and you walk out with a fixed bridge in place.
You still have to be careful with your diet, eating soft foods, to allow your implants to integrate.
After you have had 4-6 months’ time to integrate the implants, you come back to us at Aura Dental and we fit you with a permanent metal-reinforced bridge.
Join the 4 million
There are some times when it’s not so cool to join in with millions of other people. Bands, for example, are always better just before they become massively popular, and the same goes for fashion. But with teeth, you don’t want to muck about trying out things before everyone agrees they are the best way to do something. So, the fact that you are thinking of a joining a bandwagon that has 4 million people on it, and are considering getting Invisalign in St John’s Wood from us at Aura Dental can only be a good thing.
Stealth straightening
In fact, you can still be quite stealth about what you are up to. It’s not like sleeves with no shoulders, so last season darling, with Invisalign in St John’s Wood, no one needs to know that you are part of a huge wave of teeth straightening smilers. If you choose to tell your friends and colleagues, that’s up to you, but please don’t go worrying that they will notice your Invisalign clear aligners over your teeth. Invisalign in St John’s Wood is made with transparent plastic that is only 0.3mm thick. The aligners are like wrapping your teeth in cling film, they will disappear from view when you’ve got them on, and, as they won’t interfere with your speech, there are no giveaway signs that you are up to something. People may not even notice your teeth become gradually straighter and straighter, even though to you it is blindingly obvious. It’s amazing what people don’t notice. They may think, ‘hey didn’t you used to have wonky teeth’, but then they will think they must have imagined it as you clearly don’t now and no one has seen any sign of braces.
Stealth at meals too
You may worry that you will give yourself away when you try to eat with your aligners in, but the beauty of Invisalign in St John’s Wood is that they come out when you eat or drink, and also to clean your teeth. All you have to do is clean your teeth before you put your aligners back in so they don’t get discoloured by any remaining traces of food or drinks and become visible.
Great new teeth
If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well and that could not be truer than for getting replacement teeth. The latest generation of replacement teeth is dental implants. In St John’s Wood, you can get them with us at Aura Dental.
We love fitting people with dental implants in St John’s Wood because we know they will be getting the nearest thing that modern dentistry can get to natural teeth. In comparison, older styles of replacement teeth, dentures and bridges, leave a lot to be desired in terms of how well they chew, how they affect the other teeth and how long they last.
Get the root
The big difference with dental implants in St John’s Wood is that they replace the root of the tooth and not just the crown. Being able to do this did not become possible until the 1950s when a Swedish scientist discovered how well the body bonds with titanium. It took a while for dental implants to be ready to be launched, but they have been increasingly available for the past 30 years and now they have become mainstream, and very versatile as dentists have experimented with them to increase their capabilities.
Dentures and bridges only replace the crowns of lost teeth. Dentures get their stability, such as it is, by trying to get suction onto the gums. It doesn’t always work very well, especially as the gums recede and the jawbone shrinks when there are no tooth roots to keep bone cells renewing themselves. Bridges get their stability by piggybacking on neighbouring teeth, which have to be ground down and made into buttresses. You kiss goodbye to even more teeth when you have a bridge.
With dental implants, you get roots. And roots mean you can get back all the chewing power of your original teeth. That means you can eat apples without having cut them up first. You can eat roast meats, roast potatoes, nuts. All the stuff that makes life worth living.
Along with all this freedom comes longevity. You can expect your dental implants in St John’s Wood to last for at least 15 years, maybe decades.
How do you like your smile? With crooked teeth or straight?
Ask anyone if they’d prefer their teeth to be crooked or straight and the answer is always going to be straight. Even teeth that are just a tiny bit crooked can be difficult to keep free from plaque, and give you that extra bit of embarrassment that you could well do without. Straight teeth, on the other hand, release you from any feelings of self-consciousness and also tend to last longer because they don’t fall victim as much to gum disease, decay or crumbling.
But, as an adult, much as you’d like straight teeth, can you face going through treatment with braces in St John’s Wood? We think you could if you came to us at Aura Dental for treatment. We have a great range of braces in St John’s Wood that allow you to carry on living your life without having to make huge adjustments to what you do, or suffer a lot of pain or embarrassment while your braces straighten out your teeth.
Braces in St John’s Wood can be fixed or removable, depending on your alignment issues and lifestyle requirements.
Fixed braces
These are cemented onto your teeth. Brackets and wires like traditional braces, but with a twist. The brackets are made of clear ceramic and the wires are tooth-coloured. The whole device is much smaller and finer than old-style braces, blending in with your teeth rather than obscuring them.
The brands we use are called Six Month Smiles and Cfast. They work on the front 6-8 teeth only, taking about 6 months to align them.
Removable aligners
These are mouth guard style aligner trays that snap on over the teeth. One brand, Invisalign, is made of very thin, transparent plastic. You get a series of aligners and wear each one for 7-10 days before moving onto the next. Pressure points inside each aligner gently press on the teeth to get them to move.
The Inman Aligner sandwiches the front teeth between spring-loaded bows that pressure the teeth to align. Treatment can take as little as 6 weeks.
Retainers
Everyone has to wear a retainer after treatment to keep the teeth in place while the bone hardens around them.
There’s no hiding here
In some circumstances, it’s good to hide away behind a wall, but when it comes to straightening your teeth, if you are like most people, the last thing you want is a wall of metal obscuring your pearly whites while you get them straightened. Whether you are teen keen to make a good impression, or an adult whose career relies on looking well groomed and mature, the last thing you need is a set of brackets and wires that make you look like the nerdy kid at the front of the class. What you need is Invisalign in St John’s Wood.
Here at Aura Dental, we are an accredited provider of Invisalign in St John’s Wood. When you come to us for a consultation, we will be able to tell you whether Invisalign is the right treatment for straightening your teeth, and, if you have a mild to moderate misalignment issue, chances are that Invisalign will be just right for you. If you have a more severe alignment issue, it may be possible to start you off on traditional metal braces and then move to Invisalign later on during your treatment.
Why so invisible?
Invisalign in St John’s Wood is made is from very thin, 0.3mm, transparent plastic that has been 3D printed into mouth guard-like aligners that fit on over each arch of your teeth as snugly as a wet suit. Once the aligners are hugging your teeth, they become pretty much unnoticeable. It will take your best friend or family member to notice you have something extra on your teeth. To all intents and purposes, your teeth will appear to be becoming straighter all by themselves with no help.
The Invisalign process
You will receive a series of aligners that go over your teeth, one after the other. You wear the first one for around 7-10 days. At first, it will feel like it doesn’t really fit properly. This is the in-built pressure points in action, pressing on your teeth to get them to move. When the pressure wears off, it’s time for the next aligner. Treatment takes a year on average.
