Then, you’ll fit right into this practice because it is dedicated to helping people like you by the miracle of dental implants.

Dear Friend: Welcome to the new era in dentistry! Dr. Kaushesh and Serenity dental method of Implantology is unique, gathered after 1000s of hours of training from learning different systems around the world to give our clients faster, easier, predictable and longest lasting solid teeth and dentures in the mouth.  Dr. Kaushesh is a leading expert in implant dentistry – he is certified by the American Board of Oral Implantology/Implant dentistry grating him a diplomate status.  The ABOI/ID Diplomate designation symbolizes the highest level of competence in implant dentistry. Certification by the ABOI/ID attests to the fact that a dentist has demonstrated knowledge, ability, and proficiency in implant dentistry through a rigorous examination process.

Losing a tooth, particularly a front tooth, is a traumatic experience. It alters your ability to chew and how you feel about yourself, your confidence, your self-esteem. It can even alter your lifestyle and affect us socially and professionally. Most people are still less informed about the miracles of dental implants; in fact, there are common myths about implants that keep people from not selecting them as the premier choice to replace teeth! Dental tooth implants have been in use for more than 40 years! Even though they are quite common, there are three “myths” that I hear potential patients describe all the time.

Myth#1: Dental implants are painful!
FALSE! In my more than a decade of placing dental implants, most of my patients say, “that was much easier than I thought!”
There are three things that will predict whether this procedure will hurt.
The ease or difficulty of your unique situation is first. The second factor is your ability to heal well. And third, the skill and training of your implant dentist.
Pain should not be a factor in your decision making process. Choose the treatment that will give you the best result. Although I do write narcotic prescriptions such as Vicodin, most of my patients end up just using Tylenol and/or Advil. IV sedation is highly recommended as it will reduce post-operative pain too!At Serenity Dental of Havasu, advanced procedures are done for you to reduce pain from the get-go – such as administration of IV anti-inflammatory medicine prior to procedure, and placement of Platelet-Rich-Plasma where indicated to virtually eliminate chances of Dry Socket. Choose the right dentist with the right skills – choose Dr. Kaushesh who has placed and restored more than 1000 dental implants! Experience matters!

Myth#2 Dental implants are expensive!
FALSE! Single tooth dental implants do not cost much more than an average 3 tooth bridge! In our office in Havasu, the cost is almost identical. The long-term cost for having an implant versus a bridge is much lower, since a bridge will be replaced every 7 -15 years. Your dental implant will most likely never need to be replaced!
If you have a bridge, your adjacent teeth will be irreversibly ground down into little nubs. This fact alone is worth it. If you have lose dentures and can’t eat – you are losing out a lot! If you are embraced about your dentures and can’t eat a meal with your loved one – you are missing out.

Can you put a price tag on enjoying the things that you really love like eating what you want, when you want, with whom you want? Can you live with rest of your life with mental and physical trauma caused by ill fitting dentures?

The truth is you live once, and you have important occasions once. You are unique and you deserve to live with comfort. loss of teeth bringing you down? Loss of function driving you nuts? Time to get dental implants underneath your dentures.

Myth#3: Dental Implants take a long time!
FALSE! Having an implant usually takes 2 – 4 months on average. A bridge takes 3 – 6 weeks.
It is a short term sacrifice for a long term benefit!
Bone by nature, takes a while to heal. Have you ever broken a bone and had to wear a cast? I’m sure you had to wear it for a several weeks! The bone around a newly placed implant has to mend, just like the bones in your arm would have to.
A bone graft, may or may not extend the amount of time it takes for healing.
In our Havasu office, you will always have an option to wear a temporary tooth! You don’t have to walk around with missing teeth during the process!

The implants are placed under the gum and into the bone at a surgical appointment in the dental office with local anesthesia and usually under IV Conscious sedation. Healing times vary but typically range from 6 weeks to 6 months. Advancements in technology have made it possible where in many situations the teeth can be placed on the dental implants immediately allowing the client to leave the surgery with teeth in place. The implants are not healed of course and special precautions during healing must be followed but these new technologies cut considerable time off of treatment as compared to even just a few years ago.
After healing, the final teeth are attached to the implants in various ways based on the client’s desires and dental needs. The total process generally takes from 4 weeks to nine months to complete. In very complex cases which are fortunately rare, there are only a handful of dentists like Dr. Kaushesh that can provide treatment from start to finish. These cases can take a year or more to complete.
The implant is made of a biocompatible material called titanium, which cannot decay and does not need root canal therapy.
One great advantage of implants is that they stimulate and preserve the jaw bone and prevent it from eroding over time causing facial changes related to tooth loss. Not only are implants a “third set of teeth” but they keep your bone structure healthy. Just like your muscles must be exercised to stay strong, your bone must be exercised by chewing pressures through the teeth or implants for the bone to stay strong and not dissolve away. If it has dissolved away, bone grafting is often required. This complicates treatment and increases cost so the sooner the implant treatment is performed after tooth loss the better off you will be.

Dental implants are titanium posts that are similar in shape and act as artificial tooth roots. These are carefully placed in the jawbone and allowed to heal. During the healing, your bone grows up to the implant locking it into place. There are many brands of implants on the market. Dr. Kaushesh scientifically evaluates the research to determine the best implant choice for your long term success and only uses implants that meet these criteria using a Cone Beam CT Scan – a machine which is available right in our office.

Sometimes the crown or teeth are put onto the implants at the time of surgery. Other times, this is not done until after a period of healing and then the crown or teeth are made to fit on top of the implant(s) to replace a missing tooth or teeth with a “brand-new” tooth or teeth. In some cases, you can function on your new teeth immediately and in many other cases, you can be functioning on your “new” tooth in as little as 6 weeks!

Get better health and nutrition because you can eat what you want. clients are either knowingly or unknowingly unable to eat certain foods, such as fruits and vegetables, which compromises their nutrition. This can be such a gradual process of things being subliminally eliminated from the diet that only after many years does a client have a “light bulb” go off and realize all of the healthy foods that have disappeared from their diet. With dental implants, it is much easier to bite into and chew your favorite foods and to eat for health. Denture wearers are usually stuck eating sugary high carbohydrate foods just because that is what they can chew.

It is no wonder that denture wearers have more general body diseases that are related to these nutritional problems, consume more drugs to control these diseases, and wind up in the nursing home in higher numbers than other members of society due to the long term whole body effects of poor nutrition and increased severity of medical problems. To add injury to unnecessary insult, the care-giving staff at many of these facilities does not realize the extent of the issue and has very little empathy because of this ignorance.
Finally, for many of these people, their dentures (even if they could wear them) wind up getting lost meaning that the last memories they leave their families is of a favorite grand parent missing their teeth at the end of life.

An implant supported crown can be cleaned like your other natural teeth, i.e. brushing, waterpik, sonicare, flossing. Cleaning under a bridge, however, requires the use of floss threaders for proper cleaning, while a partial must be taken out several times a day and scrubbed clean. Both of the alternatives typically mean tooth decay starts again leading to more dental drilling, root canals, and tooth loss…..a never ending domino effect till all of the teeth are lost.

An upper denture covers the palate and effectively divorces you from half of the taste of your food. Over time the plastic also becomes saturated with oral fluids that interfere with the taste of your food. Essentially you are sucking on an old dirty piece of plastic while you eat your food. No wonder clients complain about odd tastes! With implant supported teeth, it is not necessary to cover the roof of the mouth. This frees you to enjoy improved taste of all of your favorite foods.

If you are a denture wearer and are having problems keeping your dentures in place or you cannot enjoy your favorite foods, then implants can make a life changing difference for you. Depending on your individual case, anywhere from 3 to 8 implants can be placed in each jaw to anchor new teeth in place. This greatly reduces the bulk of the teeth and can even eliminate the denture completely. No more wobbling or clicking; no more messy pastes and glues. You will be free to enjoy all of your favorite foods with confidence and comfort.
A word of warning to the denture wearer: One of the things that is seldom shared with the denture client is that there will always come a day when no denture can be satisfactorily made or worn due to the deteriorated condition of the jaw. When that day comes, the only way to get teeth again is with major bone grafting taken from the top of the hip in the hospital. There are roughly a half a dozen surgeons in the U.S. that have a very high success rate with hip grafts to the jaw bone. The best surgeons in the U.S. is located at UCLA, NYU and at Loma Linda, and therefore Dr.Kaushesh recommends that his clients requiring this type of graft have the procedure performed. Upon adequate healing, Dr. Kaushesh will then place the dental implants and teeth in Lake Havasu City.
It is best to avoid ever reaching this point in life by having implants placed well before the day of needing a hip graft arrives.
If you are under the age of 65 and wearing a denture Dr. Kaushesh should perform an immediate implant evaluation because after the age of 65, no insurer or Medicare will cover this medically necessary surgery which then becomes an out of pocket expense for the client. This alone can cause the cost to get your teeth back to double!

Published clinical research shows that implant supported restorations have been successful for over 30 years with success rates now reaching over 95%. These cases were carefully followed from the very beginning and are likely to remain successful for the lifetime of these clients.
Dental implants are designed to be permanent but there are many factors that contribute to their longevity. Dr. Kaushesh plans your case based on your age at the time of treatment, family health history, and individual client needs. In addition, implant technology is constantly changing and improving. Dr. Kaushesh is constantly attending international meetings looking for what is going to provide the most predicable result over the course of his clients’ lifetimes.

Home care and regular visits to the dentist or specialist are probably the most critical aspects of making your implants last. Dr. Kaushesh and his expert implant hygienist closely monitor the health of your implants and make personalize the types of care that ensure the long term health of your implants and new teeth.
The things that can affect the long term wear on your implants and teeth are smoking, grinding/clenching of the teeth, or too much pressure on the implants. Careful follow-up and observation are also necessary to minimize these risks to the client with these issues.

Research shows that the average traditional dental bridge lasts from 7-10 years and that partials and dentures last an average of 5 years. The part the research doesn’t talk about that much is that when these procedures fail they typically cause worsening dental problems and tooth loss.

In what situation then, if any, would a dentist recommend a tooth supported bridge?
Until recently, most dentists considered conventional bridges the treatment of choice for replacing missing or lost teeth. While a close majority no longer considers the traditional destructive bridge the ideal tooth replacement, slightly less than half of the profession (tens of thousands of dentists) still do not give implant options as part of their treatment plans. Dr. Kaushesh recommends that you seek a second opinion immediately if dental implants were not discussed as part of your care before proceeding to bridges, dentures, or partial dentures.

Dentists all agree that a tooth begins a downward spiral after being touched by a dental drill for the first time. Dr. Kaushesh has been using implants and helping raise the “standard of care” for tooth replacement for over six years.

Partial dentures (RPD) have been used to replace missing teeth for over a hundred years. Just by looking at that one phrase, you can immediately understand why it is an outdated treatment option because it must be ‘removed’ by the client several times per day to clean, ‘partial’ because it is a scaled down version of a denture that replaces fewer teeth, and dental-medical technology has progressed substantially from where it started a hundred years ago. If it is used long enough, many clients wearing a “partial” denture can look forward to graduating from their “partial” to a “complete” denture due to the disastrous side effects of the partial on the remaining natural teeth.
Comparison for Several missing teeth

You can begin by requesting a full exam, x-ray and Cone Beam CT exam and consultation with Dr. Kaushesh and his expert team to find out how dental implants can help with your situation. In this appointment, you will learn how the latest dental science can improve your eating, smiling, and quality of life. To schedule a consultation or to request a free report call us at 928-854-8540
Dental implants feel so natural and look so good, you just may forget you ever lost a tooth!

The primary reason dental implants are used is to ensure that all of your teeth are healthy and secure. This means that you don’t have to worry about them. Dr. Ash Kaushesh of Serenity Dental is a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral Implantology. Over the last 15 years, Dr. Kaushesh has placed more than 10,000 implants in patients while practicing dentistry. He has developed some unique methods to ensure that the dental implant process is successful and painless

As an Implantologist, Dr. Kaushesh controls an delivers both the prosthetic and surgical phases of Havasu implant stages by ensuring that they are directly in line with the patient’s teeth. In most situations, dental implants are treated by a restorative dentist and an implant surgeon, but this can lead to miscommunication and undesirable results.

Communication between these two specialists is necessary to accomplish these important goals for Havasu implants:

At Serenity Smiles in Lake Havasu, these two professional positions are combined into one person. Dr. Kaushesh acts as our Implantologist and the restorative dentist. This means that every Havasu implant patient gets the best of both worlds in one complete package.

To do his best work, it’s vital that Dr. Kaushesh deliver the implant to the best bone with the most stability. To take the guesswork out of this delicate procedure, the doctor uses a specially formulated cone beam surgical planning procedure. Dr. Kaushesh can control the placement of the dental implant by performing virtual surgery on the patient once the computer scans the focus area. The placement your Havasu implant is controlled by first learning how it interacts with the bone. Along the trajectory of the dental implant, the bone may be soft or hard. Because the doctor is able to learn the nature of the bone before the surgery, he can anticipate problems before they occur.

As a patient, you are unique. Your body is unique. Dr. Kaushesh understands this fact, which he why he treats every Havasu dental implant surgery as orthopedic surgery (screws are being driven into bone). In this way, dental implant surgery is not unlike hip or knee replacement surgery.

Dr. Kaushesh often prescribes lab testing for patients, and then consults with a cardiologist or internist to perfectly time surgery for when it’s safest for the patient. We then carefully review all medications that will be used on our Havasu implant patient. The concept that every human body is unique permeates our methodology and helps us maintains focus on patient safety throughout the surgical procedure.

Dr. Kaushesh believes that every surgery should take place in the best-possible environment. This maximizes success and ensures safety. Placing a permanent implant into bone demands an operating theater that is impeccably clean. It should be just like an operating room. Most dental surgeries take place in a dental chair in a dentist’s office without a controlling entity (a Joint Commission JCAHO is used in the medial field).

In dentistry, surgeries are most often performed in the same dental chair where crowns, impressions, and fillings are done. At Serenity Dental, we use two operating rooms outfitted with the most modern equipment. Surgeries are performed using universally accepted surgical protocols. The sterility of the environment is maximized in the environment where the Havasu implant surgery is performed.

Specialized implant growth surfaces and the advancement of growth factors makes it possible for Dr. Kaushesh to successfully load implants in as little as six weeks. We frequently utilize growth factors and other novel concepts like progressive loading. The doctor carefully studies forces within every patient’s mouth before the implants are placed in full function. They then get a lifetime of use from their Havasu implant investment.

Dr. Kaushesh relieves patient anxiety by using IV Conscious sedation with careful titration of sedatives. This process also provides relief from unpleasant sights and smells associated with Havasu implant surgery. During Lasik and toe surgery (and many other minor surgeries), it is common to control fluids, vitals, and patient comfort by using sedation. However, it hasn’t caught on in dentistry because it’s time consuming and expensive. Private practitioners are also forced to learn sedation skills.

Dr. Kaushesh has the following credentials relative to sedation:

Dr. Kaushesh’s approach to patient care is well known for its safe and simplified approach. His in-depth knowledge of sedation helps with implant procedures in the following ways:

 

You may already know that your mouth is a very dirty place. Not only does food go into your mouth, but there is also around 250 varieties of bacteria that live on the tongue and oral tissue. This is the environment in which dental implants must be placed. Additionally, stomach fluids, saliva, and post-nasal drip can make this environment even more hazardous to Havasu dental implants. All of these factors may prevent tissue from healing as it should after surgery.

After a decade of research and study under implant masters, including the late Carl Misch, Dr. Kaushesh developed a unique way of getting primary closure over implant surgery areas and bone grafts.

Instead of merely letting the open wound heal, or by using membranes that are sometimes ineffective, Dr. Kaushesh approximates the tissue by gentle stretching. This closes the tissue over the dental surgery areas, and the benefits are many:

Dr. Kaushesh says, “Bone graft is not really bone.” When a dentist places a bone graft it is simply a calcium matrix, regardless of where it comes from. Whether it comes from a human, a cow, or is completely synthetic, there are no living cells in the material because the body dissolves all of the dead bone particulate matrix.

Grafts may be any of the following:

Most dental surgeons mistakenly believe that xenograft and synthetic particulate glass particles placed as graft material will remain undisturbed in the human body, even years after the procedure.

Dr. Kaushesh learned that real living bone harvested from the implant surgery area is the best grafting material, without exception.

During most implant procedures, bone that is drilled through for implant placement is removed and wasted. Dr. Kaushesh uses special Trephines that core out the bone so that it can be used. When more bone is needed than can be removed from the implant site, the doctor identifies minimally invasive areas from where it may be taken. These areas include the mandibular, tuberosity, torus, and molar areas where wisdom teeth used to be.

There is minimal risk of injury to the jawbone or nerves when harvesting living bone and placing it where it’s needed. Few stitches are needed and the harvest sites grow new bone when they heal.

The first three weeks after Havasu dental implant surgery are the most critical. This is when the tongue becomes active and wants to play with the affected area, making the stitches and dental implant healing abutment vulnerable. During this time, Dr. Kaushesh carefully observes the implant site for premature exposure of the implant, food jammed around the area, or loosening of the healing abutment. These issues can cause faulty implant healing because firm tissue is prevented from developing around the site. It’s also important to deal with any premature exposure, inflammation, deep pockets around the implant, or premature opening of the surgical area to maximize the potential for success.

There is no consensus among dental professionals concerning how long implants should remain in the jaw to heal. It’s estimated that an implant should have anywhere from six weeks to six months to heal and Osseointegrate, which means to become one with the jaw so that the crown and denture can be loaded and used. That’s a huge difference in scales of time, and shows that they are based on individual observation instead of evidence-based analysis.

Implant healing time should be based on the patient. The practitioner should place a crown only after the quality of the bone is determined. Implants placed in bone that is harder will heal faster and can be used sooner, sometimes in as little as six weeks. However, implants may heal slower because of various factors like the patients age or whether they have diabetes. In these situations, the implant will heal slower and may require more than 12 weeks before it can be loaded. If an extraction was necessary and extensive bone grafting was done while the implant healed, it will take longer for the implant to heal.

Rubber and alginate dental impressions often cause gagging and discomfort. Instead of using these tools, we take advantage of the newest CAD CAM technology to create three dimensional scans that are dentists can then use for implant surgery. The benefits are many, and include:

Instead of using the prefabricated and stock abutments offered by most manufacturers, it’s more accurate to secure biologically compatible dentures and crowns in the workflow with custom abutments. Custom abutments are fabricated by 3D printing. They perfectly adapt to the gum profile. When crowns are placed on top of the abutments, they sit right at gum level. If the crown is not placed at the right level too much of the material may show through. The gum may also recede if the crown is placed too far away.

Custom abutments comes in all sorts of hues, including traditional titanium, gold, and white. Selecting the right custom abutment makes a big difference in the support of the crown.

There are many materials available for the making of crowns. We go to great lengths to match every patient’s biomechanics with the aesthetic demands of the treatment and the available materials.

Our all digital workflow eliminates most issues that arise from using complete dentures. When fit, detail, and results truly matter, we use a combination of patient factors, lab expertise, and state-of-the-art technology.

For more information about dentures and Havasu implants, contact our office and schedule an appointment.

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