When you lose a tooth, or even if you lose most or all of them, we can help treat missing teeth with dental implants. We can provide a single replacement tooth, or support a set of fixed dentures that never slip. In today’s blog, your Shrewsbury, MA, dentist talks about how we tackle tooth loss with implant dentistry.
The Causes of Missing Teeth
What factors lead to missing teeth? For some, a tooth could be lost due to an untreated cavity or infection, causing the tooth to fall out or be extracted to prevent the spread of infection. An injury to the face or jaw could be a factor as well. The most common factor behind adult tooth loss is actually periodontal disease, or more accurately, the stage known as periodontitis. As part of your treatment, we will assess the cause and severity of your tooth loss. We may need to manage issues before we move forward with dental implant placement.
The Long-Term Impacts
When we lose our teeth, this can lead to serious impacts on our oral health and quality of life. For example, the gaps could cause surrounding teeth to drift from position and lead to misalignment, which not only changes the appearance of your smile but increases the risk of tooth decay and infection. Missing teeth could alter your bite balance and cause strain on your jaw joints, so painful disorders like TMD and bruxism (teeth grinding) could occur. You may have trouble eating your favorite foods, which deprives you of essential nutrients. In addition, this could alter how you speak and impact social interactions.
But the most severe complication is the loss of mass and density in the jaw, as the body will stop sending nutrients to the jawbone around the lost teeth. This breakdown could cause further tooth loss and even a prematurely aged appearance! But we can help avoid these concerns with dental implants.
Planning Treatment
To get started, our team will need to plan the process in detail. We will examine your jaw and smile with advanced digital x-rays and other imaging technologies. We want to understand the cause of your tooth loss, and also assess the strength of your jaw to ensure you can support dental implants. If not, we could strengthen the jaw with grafting or sinus lift procedures beforehand. Our team also wants to carefully plan the placement process to ensure the implants are secured at the right depth, position, and angle to support your new teeth for years to come.
Dental Implants
Unlike traditional bridges or removable dentures, dental implants are actually surgically inserted into the jaw. The implant post is made from titanium, a biocompatible material the body accepts as natural root structure. Which means your new post bonds with the jaw, securing your new teeth for decades to come or possibly even a lifetime! Once the post has been guided into the jaw, we will attach an abutment to it that extends above the gum line. Once the abutment is in place, we can connect a custom crown, which not only looks natural and blends with the smile, but provides a durable chewing surface as well. You now have a new tooth that can last for years to come, functioning like a natural one.
Hybrid Dentures
Our team can employ dental implants to support a new tooth, or we could use several to secure bridges or even dentures in place! With our hybrid dentures, we will insert multiple posts per arch and then connect a set of custom-made replacement teeth. These will be made from ceramic and shaded to blend with your smile, so they look natural. They will also be able to support daily bite forces and pressures. Once in place, your dentures will be fixed so they don’t slip when you eat or speak, and we will discuss proper maintenance to keep them strong and secure for years to come, possibly decades or a lifetime!
If you have any questions about how we support replacement teeth with dental implants, then contact our team today to learn more. You deserve a full smile and we want to help make this possible.
Do You Have Questions About Tooth Replacement Options?
Our team wants to help you enjoy good oral health and a full smile, sometimes in a single visit! To find out more about our lifelike and long-lasting replacement options for missing teeth, then please call our Shrewsbury/Grafton, MA area dental office at 508-842-8838.
