Establishing Good Dental Health as a Foundation for Dental Implants

I am a firm believer in therapeutic efforts that help patients. We help patients become free of pain and comfortable with their dentition so they can function properly. We are dedicated to comprehensive dental care and the good health that goes along with accomplishing long-term dental stability. To that end, in my practice, I focus on helping the patient attain good periodontal health before we replace missing teeth with dental implants.

A good clinician knows how to sequence treatment to get the best result. If a patient has current problems that keep them from being totally functional or free of pain, then we need to take care of those problems first. The next immediate course of care is to eliminate disease before we proceed to reconstructive treatments.

This way of thinking is very similar to how a plastic surgeon would approach treating a burn patient. The first step is to help the patient’s tissue to heal in preparation for the reconstructive phases of treatment. Similarly, when tissue in the mouth is recovering from gum disease, we wait for the tissue to heal before starting dental reconstructive treatments.

This methodology is also used when it comes to dental implant treatment. When a patient has periodontal disease, we work with them to help get them healthy again. This treatment might also include growing bone in the jaw that has experienced bone loss while teeth have been missing or a series of specialized cleanings or gum grafting procedures. We want to develop a stable bone and gum structure as a foundation for the implants.

We talk with the patient about their timeline and needs for dental procedures and create a treatment plan that is comfortable for them. We achieve great results with dental implants and other procedures for patients by focusing on healing first.

Dr. Karl A. Rose
Periodontist
Chevy Chase, MD