When you suffer from tooth loss, this can impact multiple facets of your life. To enjoy a healthier smile and better overall quality of life, you need tooth replacement. In today’s blog, your Shrewsbury, MA, dentist talks about how secure lifelike and durable tooth replacement with dental implants.
The Causes of Your Missing Teeth
What factors could lead to tooth loss? We may develop missing teeth due to issues like tooth decay or infection, which could cause teeth to go missing or require extraction to protect the rest of the smile. Injury could be a factor too. The most common cause of adult tooth loss is periodontal disease, or more accurately, the periodontitis stage of the disease, which weakens and destroys the connective tissues between your teeth and gums. As part of your treatment, we will need to assess the cause of your tooth loss, as we may need to manage issues like periodontitis beforehand.
The Weakening of Your Jaw
When you lose your teeth, the body will stop sending phosphorus and calcium to your jaw, which weakens the areas around the missing roots. This weakening then leads to further tooth loss and for some, an older appearance too. If necessary, we could strengthen the area with grafting or a sinus lift, but we have options like All-On-Four that require less structure and can offer tooth replacement in only one visit.
Planning the Procedure with Digital Imaging
To begin, we will take detailed digital x-rays and intraoral camera images of the smile from multiple angles. These detailed images allow us to assess the cause and severity of your tooth loss. From there, we can plan treatment in detail, choosing the best angle, position, and depth to insert your dental implants, so you can enjoy a new root that secures your replacement tooth for years to come, possibly decades or even a lifetime.
Anesthesia and Sedation
Our team also wants to make sure the procedure is a comfortable one. We will administer a local anesthetic to the area where treatment is happening, numbing it so you are comfortable. Our team can also offer dental sedation to help you reach a deep state of calm and relaxation, even if you have high anxiety levels or special needs that could otherwise complicate the treatment process. Don’t let your fears about the dentist stand between you and the full, beautiful smile that you deserve.
Placing Your Dental Implants
Our team will guide the posts into place with digital technology, so they can bond with the jaw and act as new roots through a process known as osseointegration. Our team can use one to replace a single missing tooth or several of them to support bridges or even a full set of dentures, so even if you have major tooth loss, we can still help you smile with confidence.
Securing the Crowns and Dentures
Once your new posts are in place, our team will move forward with completing them. For a single missing tooth, we could attach an abutment and crown to the post. The crown will be custom-made to look natural and offer a balanced bite and proper chewing function. We also connect custom dentures and bridges to multiple posts, so the results look natural and help you smile with confidence. With our implant dentures, you have a new smile with rules that can last and allow you to eat your favorite foods again. The dentures will ever slip when you eat or speak, and you don’t have to remove them for soaking or cleaning either.
If you have any questions about how our team will secure replacement of your missing teeth, or if you want to start the dental implant placement process now, then contact our team today to get started. We look forward to helping you smile with confidence and enjoy better oral health, so you can enjoy a better quality of life in 2025 and beyond.
Do You Have Questions About Our Tooth Replacement Options?
We want you to obtain a full smile again, so you can enjoy better oral health, improved bite function, and of course, a smile that looks good and helps you feel confident. We can help whether you have lost a single tooth or have lost most or all of them, even if years have elapsed since this took place. To learn more about the process of placing and restoring your dental implants, then please call Modern Dentistry Of Shrewsbury today at 508-842-8838. You deserve a full and beautiful smile, and we look forward to helping you.
