When you lose a tooth, this obviously impacts the beauty of your smile. But tooth loss also weakens your jaw and leads to a host of serious complications. However, we can address tooth loss with an option that helps preserve your smile in the process. In today’s blog, your Shrewsbury, MA, dentist talks about implant dentistry.
The Causes of Your Tooth Loss
Why do we lose teeth? We could lose natural teeth to advanced and untreated tooth decay or dental infection. Injury to the face or jaw could be a factor too. However, the most common cause is periodontal disease. When the disease isn’t treated or managed with routine care, it can reach a stage known as periodontitis. At this stage, you lose your teeth and in fact, this is the number one cause of adult tooth loss. When you lose teeth, don’t resign yourself to shining your smile, see our team right away to talk about possible solutions.
What Missing Teeth Mean for You
When we lose our teeth, this gap could cause embarrassment and impact how clearly we speak. Our meal options could be limited, which in turn limits our nutritional intake. Missing teeth could also increase the risk of misalignment and with it, the risks of TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). Our body will respond to the missing roots by suspending the flow of calcium and phosphorus to the jaw. Without these nutrients, the bone structure breaks down to cause further tooth loss and a prematurely aged appearance. But with dental implants, we can fill the gaps, and in the process, preserve your jawbone and youthful facial features!
Ensuring a Comfortable Placement Process
Our team will start by planning the procedure in detail, taking detailed digital x-rays of your bite and using the information to plan the placement of the new teeth, choosing the best angles, positions, and depths to insert the new posts. We also assess the strength of the jawbone, as a weakened jaw may first need procedures like grafting or a sinus lift to fortify them and ensure they can support the placement of your new dental implant posts. We want to ensure the procedure is a comfortable one, even if you have dental anxiety or special needs that make undergoing dental care a difficult process. Our team can administer a local anesthetic to the area where the new roots are being placed, and we can recommend sedation to help you enter a deep state of calm and relaxation.
Dental Implants
Each dental implant is made of three main portions. The implant post itself is like a new root, and is made from biocompatible titanium. This is inserted into the jawbone and will act like a new root. The body accepts it as such, and this stimulates the growth of jawbone structure to prevent the area from weakening, and to ensure your new tooth has the potential to last for decades to come. Next is the abutment, a small portion that connects to the post and extends above the gum line so that we can attach the dental restoration that completes your new tooth. The crown is custom-made so it looks natural and ensures a balanced bite. The material can also absorb daily bite forces and pressures with ease.
Hybrid Dentures
What if you need dentures? We can offer a fixed alternative that looks and functions like natural teeth. Our team will start by extracting the last few teeth and then take detailed digital images and impressions of your bite, so we can plan the placement. For some, we could use as little as four posts per arch, so we can support new teeth without the need of grafting or a sinus lift beforehand. We then connect the new teeth to the posts, so you have a full smile. For some, we could complete the entire process in only one day.
If you have any questions about how our team will plan the placement of your new teeth, or if you want to get started now so 2025 starts with the completion of your new smile, then contact our team today to learn more. Our team wants to help you smile with confidence and enjoy your foods again, so reach out now to talk about dental implant placement.
Do You Have Questions About Replacing Missing Teeth?
A full smile is possible with the placement of our dental implants. To learn more about the process of replacing one or more missing teeth, then please call Modern Dentistry Of Shrewsbury today at 508-842-8838.
