When you’ve experienced tooth loss, rebuilding your smile and restoring your bite function can mean several different things. Most important is the replacement of your lost tooth or teeth. Without them, your bite can’t function properly, as the teeth that remain won’t be able to effectively absorb and distribute your bite’s pressure. However, rebuilding your smile and oral health might also require additional measures, such as replacing the roots of your lost teeth and/or strengthening the foundation of your dental ridge with jawbone grafting.
The reasons for jawbone grafting
Under typical circumstances, you may not give much thought to your jawbone structure. However, in the context of your oral health and bite function, it serves as your smile’s foundation in many different ways, from supporting your teeth roots to supplying your teeth with vital nutrients, and much more. To remain strong and healthy enough to perform all of its functions effectively, your jawbone requires a consistent source of stimulation, which is mostly provided by your healthy, natural teeth roots. When you experience tooth loss, or if another oral health condition affects the integrity of your jawbone, then rebuilding your smile might need to start with building up this foundation.
What this has to do with dental implants
One of the greatest benefits of replacing lost teeth with dental implants is that they help restore the stimulation in your jawbone when you’ve lost one or more teeth roots. This helps preserve the strength and integrity of your dental ridge, thereby helping you preserve your smile’s foundation as well as restore your bite function. However, for dental implants to be successfully placed and restored, they require enough jawbone structure for support. If you’ve already experienced a loss of mass and density in this foundation, then jawbone grafting might be appropriate to boost its strength before receiving dental implant posts.
The benefits of rebuilding your smile
When it comes to restoring your smile after tooth loss, time is of the essence, and for more reasons than just maintaining your smile’s foundation. For example, your remaining healthy, natural teeth can also respond to the loss in various ways, including shifting out of alignment and affecting your bite’s overall balance. Also, replacing one or more lost teeth with an appropriate number of dental implant posts can help you slow down or stop the loss of mass and density that can occur in your jawbone after losing teeth roots.
Learn if you can benefit from jawbone grafting
In addition to replacing your lost teeth with dental implants, fully rebuilding your smile might also require jawbone grafting to strengthen its foundation. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, call Santa Rosa Oral Surgery in Santa Rosa, CA, today at 707-545-4625.
