dental implants
The tooth on top: implant crowns, bridges, and arches.
The post holds the tooth; the restoration is the tooth. A crown for one implant, a bridge across two or more, or a full arch — this is the part you see in the mirror and use at dinner, so it is the part worth being exacting about.
Every restoration here starts with a digital scan on the iTero Lumina rather than a tray of impression material, and ends with a fit check your doctor signs off on tooth by tooth.
Matched, not manufactured-looking
A restoration has to do two jobs: disappear next to its neighbors and hold up under years of chewing. Shade, shape, and translucency are matched to your surrounding teeth — not picked from a generic chart — and the bite is adjusted until it feels like yours.
If the implant sits in your smile line, we take the extra appointment to get the gum contour and crown shape right rather than settling for close. You will see it before it's final.
Crowns, bridges, and arches
One implant carries one crown. Two or more implants can carry a bridge, replacing several teeth without a post for each. And a small set of implants can anchor an entire arch — either fixed in place (see All-on-4) or as a snap-in denture you remove at night (see implant-retained dentures).
Which is right depends on how many teeth are missing, the bone available, and what you want from the result. That conversation happens with your doctor at the consult, with the options and their trade-offs stated plainly.
Questions we hear in the chair
- How long does an implant crown last?
- Typically ten to fifteen years, sometimes longer with good habits. When it eventually wears, the crown is replaced without disturbing the post underneath — that is one of the quiet advantages of implants.
- Will people be able to tell it's an implant?
- Not if the matching is done properly. Shade and shape are set against your neighboring teeth, and you approve the result before it is final.
- What if my implant was placed somewhere else?
- That's common and not a problem. Bring what you know about the implant system, or let us find out — we restore implants placed elsewhere after confirming the post is healthy.
- Does the scan replace the goopy impression?
- Yes. The iTero Lumina captures the site digitally — no trays, no gagging, and a more precise record for the lab than impression material.
Clinical content reviewed by Dr. Marissa DeAngelis, Senior Dentist.
Serving Crozet for 50+ years. At least two full-time doctors in the building, Monday through Friday.