When you have lost your natural teeth, this could lead to cascade of serious complications, from how you eat and speak to the stability of your jawbone. But our team can take on tooth loss, whether your case is mild or severe, with a long-lasting and lifelike option. In today’s blog, your Shrewsbury, MA, dentist talks about our dental implant options.
The Causes of Missing Teeth
What causes our smile to develop tooth loss? We lose our natural teeth to issues like injury, or untreated tooth decay or dental infection. However, the most common factor is gum disease, or more accurately, the advanced stage known as periodontitis. At this stage, the tissues connecting your teeth and gums are destroyed, which leads to gaps in your smile. We recommend treating your missing teeth with dental implants before these major issues could arise!
The Impact of Tooth Loss
When you have gaps in your smile, this could potentially limit meal options and nutritional intake, and can complicate your ability to speak clearer. You could develop misalignment, causing surrounding teeth drift due to these exposed areas in the smile. The misalignment then increases the risk of tooth decay and gum disease, and further impacts smile beauty. But the most dangerous complication is the loss of mass and density, which occurs when the body stops sending nutrients to the areas around the missing roots. The jawbone breaks down to cause further tooth loss and an aged appearance. But with the placement of dental implants, we can halt this and stimulate the growth of jawbone structure to keep your smile whole and help you maintain your youthful features.
Planning Treatment
Our team will plan treatment with advanced imaging technology. To get started, we will take digital x-rays and CBCT imagery to assess the position of the missing teeth, and to assess the strength of the jawbone. For some, we may need to strengthen the weakened areas with procedures like grafting or a sinus lift, so your smile can support dental implants. But for some, we could still secure implant dentures with weakened jawbone structure, and could do so in only one visit!
Anesthesia and Sedation
Our team wants to ensure you’re comfortable throughout the placement process. We will administer a local numbing agent to the area where the new root is being placed. With dental sedation, we will then administer nitrous oxide or possibly oral conscious sedation to help you enter a calm and relaxed state. We also have IV sedation. The calming solution we recommend will be based on multiple factors, from age and weight to medical history and anxiety levels. We want to ensure your procedure is comfortable, and that you have little to no memory of the procedure afterward. Your dental implant placement should be a positive experience!
Dental Implants
The dental implants themselves are small, screw-like posts that are made from titanium. Since titanium is biocompatible, this means they can bond with the jaw and be accepted as new roots, which cause the flow of key nutrients to the jaw to resume, so your jaw becomes stable and you don’t risk further tooth loss, implant failure, or an older appearance. We can place an individual one for a single missing tooth, or use several to support a bridge or even a fixed set of dentures! A full smile is possible regardless of the state of your missing teeth, and can help you smile with confidence once again.
Fixed Dentures
With fixed dentures, we may extract the last few teeth and then insert as little as four posts into each arch. For some patients, in the same visit we can attach abutments to the posts and connect a set of dentures, so you leave our office with a full smile. Fixed dentures don’t slip and don’t need to be removed for maintenance, instead they look and function like natural teeth and can last decades, as opposed to the five years that traditional removable dentures often last. If you have any questions about how we address tooth loss, in both minor and severe cases, with dental implants, then contact our team today to learn more. Everyone deserves a full and beautiful smile, one that inspires confidence, and we’re ready to help!
Ready for a New Smile?
Don’t live with gaps in your smile, talk to our team about your tooth replacement options. We can help you enjoy a full smile again and avoid the risks of untreated tooth loss. We take time to ensure the results look natural and provide a balanced and comfortable bite, so you can enjoy your favorite foods again. To find out more about how we address minor or severe tooth loss, then please call our Shrewsbury/Grafton, MA area dental office at 508-842-8838.
