A dental implant is a small titanium screw and represents the greatest advancement in dentistry in recent years. For people who have lost a tooth, several teeth or even all of their teeth, dental
implants are the solution. In the past, a patient who lost a tooth had two
choices. A fixed bridge this setting teeth on each side wear space to receive
crowns and makes a bridge with a false tooth crowns enter them suspended.The
second option was a box of teeth or a retainer with a false tooth attached.With
current technology, the patient can obtain a simple wreath crown (without
wearing any teeth) cemented to a dental implant. Dental implants are the ultimate solution for young people with congenital absence of teeth like the lateral incisors.

A dental implant consists of three parts: the titanium screw that fuses
with the jawbone, the stump, which is placed on the portion of the implant that
protrudes from the gum line and the crown, which is created by a prosthodontist
or general dentist.

The best known use of dental implants is to treat fully edentulous patients.
Patients using dentures often suffer due to mobility and decreased function of
these dentures. Dental implants offer many benefits to these patients. The
stability of the prostheses improved by the use of up to two dental implants,
but greater satisfaction is achieved if the number of dental implants is higher
in order to have a fixed denture supported by implants. This solution offers to
the patient aesthetics and function similar to their original teeth. The patient can eat almost
everything.

The implant rehabilitation of the edentulous maxilla is one of the most challenging procedures in prosthodontics. A successful implant-supported prosthesis addresses the functional and esthetics
needs of the patient. One of the complications when restoring the maxilla with a implant supported fixed restoration is that often the implant-supported prosthesis allows an airway escape passage that causes phonetics problems. Sometimes a gap is created between the prosthesis and the alveolar ridge to allow of an easy access for the patient to clean or due to a too occlusally
positioned implant. A removable labial flange can be constructed to correct
this problem, made of acrylic or silicone. This prosthetic device has the
advantage that can provide additional lip sup-port for those patients needing
it. The disadvantages are that food may get caught under the flange; it
represents and an additional laboratory cost and is a removable device that
requires patient compliance and maintenance.