Dental Implant
The best way of replacing a missing tooth is an implant. Usually dental implant includes three different components : a fixture, an abutment and a crown. Fixture is the part which goes in to the bone, abutment screws on that and crown is cemented on abutment.
Dental implants can be categorized in different ways:
- Bone level or tissue level fixture
- Prefabricated or custom made abutments
- Screw retained or cement retained crown
Most of implants are made from medical grade Titanium but there are some implants which are made of special porcelain named Zirconia. For those people who prefer metal free restorations, porcelain implants are the best way to go. Abutments are the same. Most of the time abutments are made of Titanium or gold but these days they can be easily made of Zirconia which is a very hard porcelain. And last but not least, the crown. Crowns can be made of metal or porcelain or combination of both.
Here are some examples: