When you’re undergoing any type of dental procedure, it’s important to do your homework to understand the procedure, but there is a point where your research might lead you into detailed questions of the choices your dentist is making, such as, for example, the type of dental implant your dentist chooses.
Many Kinds of Dental Implants
Once you start looking into the types of dental implants available, you’ll realize what a monumental task it is to decide which is the right one to use. After all, dental implants come with different surfaces, such as smooth and roughened, but they also have different roughening techniques. They can be made of different materials, with numerous titanium alloys available and even ceramic dental implants becoming more common. They can come in different lengths, different shapes, different widths, and even have different screw thread shapes. In all, there are more than 1200 different options, with each one claiming to offer advantages.
The only way to determine which of these actually offer real advantages and which ones just make claims is to look at the science. Ideally, you should take all the available science that compares dental implant types in terms of performance.
Guess what–it’s already been done by experts at comparing scientific studies. The Cochrane Library, whose reviews are often considered the standard by which medical evidence should be judged, looked at all studies comparing different dental implant factors, such as roughening, size, shape, and more. They found only 27 studies that met their criteria for review. If you think about it, that’s a remarkably small number of studies for comparing all the options, so it’s not surprising that they would conclude that the data was insufficient to support claims that one or another dental implant was really better than the others.
Find an Implant Dentist You Trust
So, what does this mean for dental implants in general and for you in particular. It probably means, first and foremost, that more research needs to be done on this question, and with less bias. The Cochrane review found that more than half of the studies (15) had a high risk of bias, while a small number (two) had a low risk of bias. In the remainder, they didn’t have enough information to gauge bias.
But the next thing is that there’s no clear benefit to any particular type of dental implant, which means that dentists should be trusted to use the one that they find fits best with their particular style. And, since all dental implants have such a high rate of success and survival overall, this likely isn’t a major concern.
What we do know for certain, though, is that your choice of dentist makes a huge difference in your results. Put all your energy into choosing a dentist that you feel you can trust, and let them handle all the hard decisions.
If you are looking for a dentist you can trust, please call 803-781-9090 for an appointment with a Columbia, SC dentist at Smile Columbia Dentistry.
