Have you ever spoken to someone who is missing a tooth? You may have noticed that no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t help looking at the empty space in his or her mouth.
Are you someone who has lost a tooth? Have you noticed how some people seem more interested in the gap between your teeth than in what you are trying to say?
Did you know that the average American adult will lose a tooth during his or her life? If you are one of them, then we believe we could help if you visit our dentist office in Phoenix, AZ.
At Dental Implants and Periodontology Of Arizona, we help people who are missing one or more teeth every day. We recommend tooth replacements for a variety of reasons. Today we want to address three reasons you may want to keep in mind if you have lost a tooth or if you lose one in the future.
► Preserve Your Smile
If you still have all your teeth, you may think the scenario we described above is fictional. We encourage you to ask someone with a missing tooth what they think.
People tend to notice when something is supposed to be somewhere but it isn’t. When that something is a tooth that is missing from your smile, it can be a distraction. Some people will even become self-conscious because their lost teeth.
We want you to keep smiling, and we want you to feel comfortable with your smile. This is why we offer dental implants and dental crowns at our office. An implant replaces the root of your missing tooth while providing a foundation to support your dental crown, which replaces the lost crown of your natural tooth.
With this pairing and proper oral care, you can preserve your smile for a long, long time.
► Prevent Drifting
Support groups are a popular form of therapy for a reason. The people in the group have a common problem. This allows them to relate to one another and to provide mutual support as they work through the issues in their lives.
In a way, your teeth are a mutual support system for one another. You may never notice it, but your teeth move every day.
Since your teeth are close to one another, they also provide support for the teeth around them. As your teeth push into each other, this helps to keep them in pretty much them same position.
If you remove one tooth, however, this can disrupt the balance. With a little time, the teeth on either side of the space in your mouth may start to drift into that opening. As this happens, two more teeth with lose some of their support. They too may start to drift.
After years of this, your bite may change, and you may have more difficulty chewing certain foods.
► Protect Your Jaw
Our teeth are the tools we use to bite, tear, and chew our food. They play an essential role in helping our bodies break down food into the nutrients that we need.
With each bite and chew, the roots of our teeth push against our jawbones. This pressure is extremely important to keep our jaws healthy and strong.
For practical purposes, we could say the old tissue of our jawbone goes away. The pressure provided by our roots is a signal to our jaw to create new tissues. This process helps you maintain the shape and strength of your jaw.
Without a root or something to replace it, the jawbone won’t receive that signal, and it will generate new bone tissue in that part of your mouth. As you lose more bone, it could affect neighboring teeth and change the shape of your face.
Be Proactive
If you have lost a tooth or you lose one in the future, we encourage you to be proactive about your treatment. By replacing your missing root with a dental implant, your jaw will receive the pressure that it needs to remain healthy.
When you place a dental crown on your implant, you will be able to bite and chew just like you did with your real tooth. This means you can continue eating the food that your love.
And because your tooth replacement will look natural, so will your smile.
If you would like to know more about implants, dental crowns, or tooth replacement options, make an appointment at Dental Implants and Periodontology Of Arizona. Our dentist office serves patients in the Phoenix area.
You can contact us by calling 602-842-6841 or filling out our online form.
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