A dental implant is an artificial tooth root replacement and is used in prosthetic dentistry. There are several types of dental implants; the most widely accepted and successful is the osseointegrated implant. This forms a structural and functional connection between the living bone and the implant. A variation on the implant procedure is the implant-supported bridge, or implant-supported denture.

The city of Oakland stretches from the San Francisco Bay up into the East Bay hills. The character of these neighborhoods continues to change as waves of migrants from within the United States and from other countries relocate here. The changing economy has also lured more workers with information technology and biotechnology skills to Oakland.

Typical oakland dental implants consist of a titanium screw (resembling a tooth root) with a roughened surface. This surface is treated either by plasma spraying, etching or sandblasting to increase the integration potential of the implant. An osteotomy or precision hole is carefully drilled into jawbone and the implant is installed in the osteotomy.

A single oakland dental implant procedure that involves an incision and "flapping" of the gum or gingiva (to expose the jawbone) takes about an hour, sometimes longer; multiple implants can be installed in a single surgical session lasting several hours. At the conclusion, the patient goes through a period of recovery, returns to consciousness and is sent home with a relative or friend.

Kaiser Permanente, a HMO started during World War II to provide medical care for Kaiser shipworkers, is based in Oakland and has a large medical center in the Piedmont neighborhood. Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Oakland (Summit Campus, referred to as "Pill Hill") is a recent merger with the former Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley, California; it is part of the Sutter Health network. Alameda County Medical Center is operated by the county and provides medical services to the medically indigent who do not have health insurance. Highland Hospital in Oakland also is the trauma center for the northern area of the East Bay. Children's Hospital Oakland is the primary medical center specializing in pediatrics in the East Bay.

Despite large tax breaks East Bay nonprofit hospitals receive for community service, public hospitals such as Highland devote a much larger portion of their operating expenses to charity care.

In all cases, what must be addressed is the functional aspect of the final implant restoration, the final occlusion. How much force per area is being placed on the bone implant interface? Implant loads from chewing and parafunction can exceed the physio biomechanic tolerance of the implant bone interface and/or the titanium material itself, causing failure. This can be failure of the implant itself (fracture) or bone loss, a "melting" or resorption of the surrounding bone.

Oakland dental implants are typically performed as an outpatient under general anesthesia or with Local anesthesia by trained and certified clinicians including general dentists, oral surgeons, and periodontists. An increasing number of general or cosmetic dentists as well as prosthodontists are also placing implants in relatively simple cases. The most common treatment plan calls for several surgeries over a period of months, especially if bone augmentation (bone grafting) is needed to support implant placements. At the other end of the surgery scale, some patients can be implanted and restored in a single surgery, in a procedure labeled "immediate function" and "teeth in an hour."

(Source: Wikipedia.com - Dental Implant)