NEW YORK -- No matter how well you take care of your teeth -- and many of us don't -- millions of Americans will end up needing dental work for one reason or another.

As gum disease, decay and other problems take their toll, people start to lose teeth.

"It seems as I'm getting older, my teeth are falling apart, and they're kind of falling apart all at once," said Maureen Woodroffe, a dental implant patient.

Woodroffe and a growing number of patients are choosing to replace their teeth with dental implants, reported WNBC-TV in New York.

"The best way to think of implants are artificial tooth roots, and then we use that as a foundation so we can do single tooth or multiple teeth or stabilizing dentures," said Dr. Steven Schwartz, an oral surgeon in Brooklyn, N.Y.

But before an implant can withstand the intense forces of chewing, bone has to grow up to and around the implant to anchor it. Even with newer implants, that takes a while.

"In many cases, it can be as short as eight weeks or two months given the particular situation," Schwartz said.

But now, a new implant just approved by the Food and Drug Administration uses a new way to get the bone to anchor the implant even sooner.

Like many implants, the surface is roughened so bone has something on which to grab. What's new is that the titanium surface is coated with fluoride, a bone-stimulating element.

As tiny amounts of fluoride are released, bone cells are induced to grow up to and around the implant much more quickly than before.

"There's probably a 30 to 50 percent increase in the rate of healing and the bone bonding to the implants," Schwartz said. "So what it boils down to is your implant will heal faster, and it actually will be a little bit stronger."