A good candidate for dental implants needs to have bone density around the jaw bone, meet certain health requirements and be a non smoker.

Are you a good candidate for dental implants? Dental implants have been shown to be highly successful in the majority of patients, lasting as long as twenty years with the proper care and preventive treatment but not everyone is a good candidate. There are a few disqualifiers that can rule you out as a viable candidate for implants including being a smoker, certain pre existing medical conditions and a lack of sufficient bone density in the jawbone.

Some studies have indicated that smokers have a low success rate when it comes to dental implants. Some dentist in fact won抰 even consider implants on smokers because the likelihood of success is so low, making it a costly and painful procedure that is doomed to failure. If you are a smoker and you are serious about your dental options you will need to quit smoking at least three months before you consult with your dentist regarding implants. You will have to be dedicated to remaining a non smoker after your surgery too or the implants can still fail.

Smoking has been shown to do a couple of things that are counter productive to healing including thinning the bone density of the jaw bone and impairing the ability to heal. Since it is important for the bone to heal around the implantation in order for the surgery to be a success, anything that prevents that healing time has to be a factor in considering who is a viable candidate and who isn抰. For non smokers the healing time can take months because bone re-growth is a slow process as anyone who has ever experienced a broken or fractured bone can attest to. The healing time can be even longer for smokers.

Other considerations including pre existing health problems such as a history of heart problems, strokes, cancer, bleeding disorders or immune repression. Patients who have a current problem with drug abuse, or who are diabetic and don抰 have the disorder under control may also not be viable candidates for implantation surgery.

A final disqualifier is bone quality and density. In order for dental implants to work they must have enough jaw bone to be surgically implanted into. Any jawbone that is thin due to bone loss or disease will lack the basic depth needed for an implant to be successful and take.

Your dentist can make an assessment of your bone density through x- rays, CT scans or an MRI scan and discuss with you if you are a likely candidate for a successful implantation surgery.

Other minor considerations that you will want to be aware of include age. You need to be at least 18 years old to be considered a potential candidate because it takes this long for the jaw bone growth to be considered complete.

Finally you will need to maintain good oral health habits such as brushing and flossing and follow through with yearly cleanings and check ups to make sure your new implants last a lifetime.