Dr. Sanda Moldovan compares ceramic implant systems: older one-piece designs that use cemented crowns, which trap cement under gums and cause inflammation, versus newer screw-retained systems with carbon-fiber screws that eliminate those problems and allow easy crown removal.
Hi everyone, I'm Dr. Sanda and I wanted to bring you an update on zirconia dental implants or ceramic dental implants. Because so many of you are asking me questions about what are the other options besides titanium dental implants. So since 2007, we've had in the United States an FDA approved company which was providing ceramic dental implants. And they looked similar to this one. Essentially it's one block or one piece. It looks like a screw. It's got little threads around it that goes in and replaced in the jawbone to replace a tooth. And above it we have usually about 5, 6 millimeters of what it's called an abutment or post sticking up above the implant. And this came as what we call as one piece. Luckily, today we have another option. The problem with these one piece implants is that we have to cement the crown on top and a lot of that cement ends up getting under the gum and we can get inflammation. We can't properly clean the cement and there can be issues. But today we have what is called a screw retained ceramic implant system. And what does that mean? Essentially we can actually take a crown and instead of cementing it on top of the zirconia system, we actually screw it down with a carbon fiber screw. And this carbon fiber screw has been shown to be very strong. I've started using this implant system. I absolutely love it. I don't have to use cement anymore. And let's say if I have to retrieve a crown, then I can simply unscrew it without having to actually cut it down. Because once we cement a crown on top of the implant, that's basically final, it's very hard for us to remove it. But with carbon fiber screw, this no longer is an issue. And we also don't see the inflammation of the gums from the cement of the previous dental implant system. If you want more information on ceramic dental implants, please call our office or visit our website. Until later.
