One or more missing teeth may have you worried about your smile, but that’s not the end of it. Chewing and eating the foods you enjoy could be more challenging due to missing teeth, impacting your health and nutrition. In addition, interacting with other people may feel uncomfortable with gaps in your smile.
Besides these concerns, there are also bone loss and tooth shifting problems that may occur due to missing teeth. These issues can create more significant dental health concerns, like bite misalignment and an increased risk of developing issues like gum disease .
Dental implants offer excellent solutions for people missing one or even multiple teeth because they restore both your tooth and root. Here are a few things to know about dental implants when you’re considering your tooth replacement options.
Dental Implants Replace Your Root
This fact may not seem like a big deal at first, but believe it or not, the root of your tooth plays an integral role in supporting your tooth and your jawbone.
When you lose a tooth root, your jawbone now has nothing left to support and keep it stimulated. This may result in your bone beginning to deteriorate. This bone loss can impact neighbouring teeth and even change the appearance of your face over time.
When you choose a dental implant to restore your smile, your dentist or an oral surgeon will place the implant into your jawbone during a simple surgery. Because dental implants are made of biocompatible materials, they naturally integrate and fuse with your bone over a few months through a process called osseointegration.
After osseointegration occurs, you now essentially have a new root that will support your new tooth and keep your bone stimulated and healthy.
Dental Implants Provide the Look, Feel, and Function of a Natural Tooth
A dental implant is designed to connect with a porcelain crown that becomes your new tooth with an abutment piece.
Your dentist will use ceramic porcelain to create your new crown. Porcelain crowns are durable and aesthetic, so they blend beautifully with your other teeth.
Once you complete your dental implant, you’ll enjoy all the functions during eating and chewing that you had with your natural tooth.
Dental Implants Are Easy to Care For
You can treat your dental implant like a natural tooth during eating, brushing, and flossing – and you should. An excellent home care routine will help protect your dental implant from gum disease and infection.
You should also visit your dentist every six months for routine teeth cleanings and checkups. Your dentist will use examinations and x-rays to ensure that your dental implant stays healthy and in working order.
Dental Implants Provide Excellent Longevity
When you take the appropriate steps to care for your dental implant properly, it can potentially last for many years and even for a lifetime in some cases.
Excellent longevity can prove to be a wise financial decision for some patients instead of replacing other appliances such as a bridge or partial denture over time.
Dental Implants Can Replace One or Multiple Missing Teeth
So far, we’ve focused on dental implants as a single tooth replacement option, but they can also aid in replacing multiple missing teeth.
A few strategically placed dental implants are capable of anchoring appliances such as:
- A dental bridge
- Full or partial dentures
Dental Implants and Bridges
Two dental implants can act as anchors for a bridge that replaces one or multiple adjacent teeth.
One or more prosthetic teeth fill in the gaps and are attached to the anchor crowns, securely holding them in place and completing your smile.
Dental implants provide stability for your bridge and the security of essentially having the closest thing to a natural tooth holding your bridge in place, which offers better longevity.
Dental Implants and Dentures
When you choose dental implants to support your full or partial denture, you’ll enjoy all the benefits of bone protection that implants provide, which means better longevity for your appliance in most cases.
Traditional dentures rely on the jawbone and suction to stay in place, and over time this can lead to bone deterioration. Bone loss impacts the fit of your denture, which you’ll have to have relined periodically to ensure that you have a proper fit. In addition, an ill-fitting denture is problematic because it can slip or move when you eat or talk.
Dental implants act as anchors that your dentist can design a denture to snap into, which makes the fit of your denture more stable with no concern for you about movement or slippage when you’re talking or eating.
Most denture wearers appreciate the stability and peace of mind that an implant-supported denture provides.
Who Is a Candidate for Dental Implants?
If you’re living with missing teeth or decayed, fractured, or broken teeth that are compromised, you may want to consider tooth replacement with dental implants.
Patients considering dentures to restore their teeth may also want to learn more about implant-supported dentures. If you already have a denture that is ill-fitting or uncomfortable, dental implants may be able to remedy those problems.
With the surgical advancements of bone grafting and sinus augmentation, dental implants are typically accessible to almost everyone, even patients who’ve experienced severe bone loss due to conditions like periodontal disease.
Would You Like to Learn More About Dental Implants?
If you’re considering tooth replacement options, the best thing to do is schedule an evaluation with your dentist.
Some dentists have completed continuing training and education in implant dentistry and may provide implant placement surgery in their clinics. Other dentists prefer to work with oral surgeons or other specialists to place dental implants.
After your implant surgery, your dentist will oversee your healing process, which can take anywhere from three to six months for your implant to integrate fully with your bone. They will also be in charge of designing your restoration, whether that is a single porcelain crown or a bridge or denture to replace multiple teeth.
Even if you’re working with a specialist for implant placement surgery, your dentist will work closely with you and oversee your treatment from start to finish.