Tooth loss is nothing to laugh about. You may be the healthiest patient in town, but if you lose a tooth by accident or disease it can negatively affect your life. Others may see you as less healthy, and you’ll discover that it’s more difficult to do simple tasks like chewing and eating. But by investing in tooth replacement treatments quickly, you can reap a whole slew of benefits for your smile. We’ve gathered our 7 favorite perks of a complete smile, to show patients like you why it’s so important to consider dental implants after you lose a tooth.
1. Speak And Eat Better
Your teeth aren’t just meant to look pretty in pictures. Teeth are meant for biting and chewing your food, as well as speaking clearly. When one or more teeth are lost, this can throw your whole smile out of balance. Patients have experienced whistling between their teeth while talking, or have been unable to pronounce words clearly because of their missing teeth. Tooth loss also affects the balance of pressure in your jaw when you bite and chew your food. Eating can become difficult, especially as your jawbone deteriorates.
By replacing your teeth with dental implants, or other tooth replacement devices, you can save yourself from these stresses. It’ll be easier to bite, chew and speak confidently again.
2. Brush And Floss Better
When you lose a tooth, it’s also an open wound that exposes you to potential bacterial infections. Keeping the site clean is very important, but it can also be difficult to do with such a large gap. By filling in that gap with a low-maintenance dental implant, you can brush and floss with ease again. You don’t even need to worry about using special tools; dental implants can be cleaned as you would with any other tooth.
3. Less Stress On Your Jaw
As we said above, a dental implant can restore that careful balance that your mouth needs to bite and chew food effectively. This also means that an implant can reduce stress on your jaw joints as well. Temporomandibular joint disorder (or TMJ for short) occurs when the jaw joint and muscles around it become stressed and sore. This can lead to intense pain and difficulty opening or closing your mouth. But with the help of dental implants, patients can restore this balance and prevent TMJ from worsening or even occurring in the first place.
4. Better Oral Health
Jawbone deterioration is an unfortunately common side effect of tooth loss. Without the support of a tooth, that area of the jawbone can start to decrease in size. The neighboring teeth around the gap also lose support and start to shift out of place. Solution like dentures or dental bridges are nice, but they hardly offer support for the all-important jawbone. But dental implants do.
When a dental implant is placed, it undergoes a process known as osseointegration. This fusion process is when the jawbone weaves bone fibers around the implant and secures it to the jaw. It not only makes the implant permanent, but also encourages the jawbone to regenerate. You can’t get this reaction from a removable denture or dental bridge!
5. Less Costly Treatments In The Future
Dental implants have become popular thanks to their long lifespan. Dentures and dental bridges are placed only on the surface level of your mouth and go through natural wear and tear over time. As a result of this wear, it also means that they have a lifespan of roughly 5 to 7 years. This means you’ll have to constantly replace them over time, especially as your jawbone deteriorates and changes in shape.
But with dental implants, this is not the case. Completing your smile with dental implants is a one-time investment that will last for a decade or more. Though rare, you may need to replace the porcelain crown if it becomes damaged. But the implant itself is permanent and forever.
6. Confidence In Your Appearance
Missing teeth don’t just affect your health, but your well-being as well. According to a study conducted by the Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’ Dental Institute in London, 45% of participants expressed that tooth loss made an emotional impact on their lives. They were less likely to go about normal daily activities, and felt distraught about their changes in face shape.
Dental implants are one of the best solutions to help fix this problem. It’s true that tooth loss can feel emotionally draining, but restoring your gap quickly with a dental implant is a good decision. Implants are designed to look like healthy teeth, and you can feel confident in your smile again.
7. Visit The Dentist Less Often
You may be telling yourself that you don’t need to solve your tooth loss right this minute. Maybe it can wait a few weeks or a few months, when you’re not so busy. But we’re here to warn you that it’s not the best course of action to ignore it for so long.
Tooth loss gets worse over time, as your jawbone weakens and other teeth start to shift out of place. This can result in multiple oral health issues, with frequent visits to the dentist to get them corrected. Can your wallet handle the strain?
Instead, invest in a tooth replacement device like dental implants. It’s permanently placed and will save you from the burden of cost with future treatments.
“What Are My Implant Options With Dr. Eric Herman?”
It’s often thought that dental implants only come in one style, replacing a single tooth at a time. At Herman Family Dentistry, we don’t just offer individual dental implants. For patients who need full arch coverage we can also create an implant-supported denture. It’s the best of both worlds, allowing patients to benefit from the full coverage of a denture coupled with the jawbone support of implant fixtures.
Discover More Dental Implant Advantages In Vincennes
A complete smile can bring countless benefits to patients like you with missing teeth. They have the support you need and the oral health benefits to improve your condition. What’s better is that this unique treatment is available at Herman Family Dentistry. Give us a call to schedule a consultation with Dr. Eric Herman to find out your candidacy.