Missing one or more teeth can pose a threat to your oral health. Happily, modern dentistry offers several replacement options. However, dental implants bring distinct advantages.
Dr. Wenli Loo and Dr. Steve Deng suggest that most patients who come to LivWell Dentistry to replace one or more missing teeth consider dental implants. We find it to be the superior method for tooth replacement for the majority of patients. In this post, we describe five reasons to consider implants.
If you’re missing a tooth, you have plenty of company. About 120 million Americans are missing at least one tooth. Around 36 million are missing all of their teeth. But, being common doesn’t make it less serious.
Whether you’re missing teeth due to injury, tooth decay, or gum disease, you probably don’t like the way it looks or feels. Aside from the cosmetic issues, missing teeth can also make it difficult to chew or to speak clearly.
Dental implants are a good choice for replacing missing teeth because they restore function, and they look great. Implants can be used to replace one tooth, or even a full row of teeth. When they replace multiple teeth, they may be called implant-supported bridges or denture-supported implants.
Dentures can be a good tooth replacement solution for some people, but they do have limitations. Dentures are removable and may be convenient. But if they aren’t adjusted just right, they can cause chaffing or blisters. When dentures don’t fit correctly, it’s difficult to eat without them shifting out of place.
Dentures also require special care each day. You may need to use dental adhesive, and you need to soak your dentures each night to keep them clean. With implants, none of that is necessary because you care for implants exactly as you would natural teeth.
You may have had a tooth missing for months or even for years. But, perhaps you’ve recently had an extraction. Despite our best efforts to save your natural teeth, sometimes the best course of action is to remove the tooth.
A dental implant can give you back the full function of a natural tooth, and look just the same.
When you have natural teeth, and you bite down, the tooth root stimulates blood flow to your jawbone and keeps it healthy. When the tooth is removed, there’s no longer a root to stimulate that healthy blood flow. Over time, that can lead to bone loss.
Bone loss eventually affects your facial structure. Your cheeks take on a more sunken appearance. Dental implants are the only tooth replacement option that recreates the stimulation of your tooth root.
Additionally, filling the gap left by a missing tooth can prevent your remaining teeth from shifting out of place.
We can often repair a cracked, decayed, or otherwise damaged tooth with fillings, bonding, or a crown. But sometimes the damage is simply too severe. In those cases, the better choice is to remove the damaged tooth and replace it with an implant.
For most people, dental implants are a great option to replace a missing tooth. If you’d like to learn more and find out if this might be a good solution for you, schedule an appointment at LivWell Dentistry today!
