Dental Implants by Donald B. Lurie, DDS

Our surgeon and staff are committed to providing you with the highest quality of care in a safe and relaxing atmosphere. Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a specialty that diagnoses and treats problems of the jaws, mouth, facial bones, face and related structures. Dental Implants: Who Needs Implants? Anyone who is missing teeth and can benefit from increased chewing efficiency, and improved appearance or speech, is a candidate for dental implants. Implants can be the solution when it has become difficult or impossible to wear a removable denture. Portions of the jaw that are missing due to an accident, disease, or birth defect can often be reconstructed using implants. Wisdom Teeth: The Impacted Wisdom Tooth When a wisdom tooth is blocked from erupting or coming into the mouth normally, it is termed `impacted.' Thus, the term impacted only means that which has not or can not erupt into functional position. A tooth may be only partially impacted, meaning it grows in crooked and breaks through the gum only partially, or it may fail to break through at all and thus remains totally impacted. Serious problems can develop from partially impacted teeth, such as pain, infection, and crowding of, or damage to, adjacent teeth. For totally impacted teeth, more serious problems can occur if the sac that surround the impacted tooth fills with fluid and enlarge to form a cyst.