When it comes to our mouth, most of us want three things: healthy teeth that can chew well and a beautiful smile. Our teeth play an essential role in our overall health and self-confidence. Unfortunately, as we age, various things can happen that affect the health, beauty and function of our teeth.
From injury to tooth decay and gum disease, unexpected tooth loss can happen. The good news is that there are several state-of-the-art options to replace missing teeth. One of the best ways to replace missing teeth is with dental implants. Used as root-like support for missing teeth, dental implants are the most trusted long-term solution for replacing missing teeth. Dental implants are a fixed alternative to dentures, partial dentures, and bridges.
Although there are many considerations involved in choosing how you restore your mouth if you are missing teeth, we believe there are five reasons to consider implants as part of your plan for a healthier mouth.
1. Replace a missing tooth.
One of the most apparent reasons to move forward with a dental implant is to replace a missing tooth. Whether you lost it due to injury or had to have it pulled due to decay, living with a missing tooth can be detrimental to your chewing and self-confidence. The ideal option for one missing tooth, a dental implant with a crown, is matched to your other teeth in size and color and shape to ensure it looks and feels like it was always part of your mouth.
2. Improve the appearance of your smile.
Depending on where in your mouth you are missing teeth, adding a dental implant can improve the overall appearance of your smile, especially if the lost tooth is in the front of your mouth. Don’t try to cover up your smile or the embarrassment over a missing tooth; instead, replace it with an implant and let your personality and smile shine through.
3. Increase the functionality of your teeth.
When you lose one or more teeth, your overall ability to chew decreases significantly, the more missing teeth, the less efficient you become at chewing and digesting your food. You may find yourself struggling to eat all types of foods or slur your speech when you talk. Studies clearly show that people without natural teeth live an average of seven years less than those with all their natural teeth. By replacing your missing teeth with dental implants, you can restore your mouth’s function without worrying about dentures slipping, changes in speech, or loss of bone density that occurs when you wear dentures. Often, dental implants do the exact opposite of dentures, or missing teeth, when it comes to your jawbone’s bone density. Dental implants help improve and increase bone density by acting as a solid support system for your jawbone to thrive, thus improving the function of not only your mouth but your jaws.
4. Elevate your overall health.
Teeth play a vital role in your overall health. From consuming a balanced diet to digesting your food properly, the way your teeth operate has a lot to do with your body’s vitamin, mineral, and nutrient processing. With a complete set of teeth, you can eat food that you may not be able to enjoy with missing teeth. In addition, restoring the full function of all of your teeth allows your mouth to properly chew food into processable bites for your body to digest more easily.
5. Enjoy the highest level of comfort and function.
There is a large difference in the comfort level and function of implant-supported teeth and other restorative options such as partial dentures or full dentures. So often, when you’re moving to dentures for the first time, there is a long adjustment period. It can take months for a person to learn to keep the dentures in place, chew and tolerate a mouth full of plastic teeth. This can result in movement of the teeth as you speak and chew. This also can cause sores or irritation of the supporting gums throughout your mouth. With dental implant-supported teeth, there is no movement resulting in a much smoother, more comfortable and secure transition as well a better chewing experience.
Dental implants are an ideal choice for those with one or more missing teeth. Dental implants can change your smile, restore your confidence and support good health by returning you to the beauty, comfort and function of a healthy mouth. Because they also allow more effective chewing it can be a big step in returning good nutrition to a once compromised situation leading to a longer, healthier life . If you are missing one or more teeth and are considering options to restore your smile, we can help. Schedule your consultation today.
