There are many reasons why people have missing teeth including tooth decay, trauma, and aging. While tooth loss is common, having missing teeth can have adverse effects on both your dental health and overall life quality. Additionally, when you have gaps in your smile, you may lose a great deal of confidence and self-esteem, as you may feel embarrassed by how your smile looks.
The Many Problems Associated With Missing Teeth
On top of feeling self-conscious about having visible gaps in your smile, having missing teeth can lead to various issues. Missing teeth can slow down and eventually stop the production of healthy gum tissue and jawbone mass. Gum tissue health and jawbone mass are compromised when you have missing teeth because when a tooth is lost, the root of the tooth along with the stimulus to produce healthy tissue is lost. This causes the tissue to begin to recede and this recession can affect the other teeth wherein they can become loose, putting them at risk for loss as well.
Another problem associated with missing teeth is that adjacent teeth will naturally begin to shift toward that open space. When the teeth move this way, it can change how you bite, chew, and eat and can even alter the way you pronounce some words. It can also lead to you looking older than you really are. This is due to the jawbone and all your teeth working to support your cheeks and lips. When teeth and supporting bone is lost, the face will sag inwards, adding years to your appearance.
Dental Implants And How They Help
For many years, the preferred method for replacing missing teeth was to wear dentures. While dentures can be used to replace one missing tooth or all teeth, they do create some serious issues. For instance, denture wearers often complain of discomfort and slippage and of not being able to bite and chew food as they’d like. Denture wearers also can feel self-conscious about how they look with them in and even be worried about their dentures slipping out of place when talking to others.
Dental implants offer a long-term solution to these types of problems as a dental implant looks, feels, and functions just like a natural tooth. Nowadays, one missing tooth or a whole set of teeth can be replaced with implant dentistry to keep the jawbone healthy and to prevent the appearance of the face from looking droopy due to bone atrophy. With dental implants, you can eat all the foods you love and never worry about slippage as a dental implant is permanently placed directly into the jawbone.
If you have any questions about dental implants, please don’t hesitate to contact The Center for Oral Surgery of Las Vegas as we’re always happy to speak with you!