When patients experience tooth loss, the best thing they can do for their smiles is to replace their lost teeth as soon as possible. For example, with a custom-designed dental implant restoration, they can replace all of their lost tooth’s structure, including the root, to help restore their bite’s full functionality and preserve their smiles more effectively. However, for many people, the loss of a tooth is something that could be prevented, especially if it’s the result of a severe, chronic underlying concern (such as gum disease). Today, we explore why preventing tooth loss matters to your smile long-term, and how it can help you preserve more than you might expect.
You lose all of a tooth’s function if it occurs
It seems obvious that losing a tooth means your smile loses that tooth’s functionality. However, the implications of this loss aren’t always obvious, or even noticeable at first. For example, all of your healthy, natural teeth rely on support they provide each other whenever you bite and chew. This support diminishes when one of them is lost, and the space in your dental ridge can cause several different problems with your bite balance and tooth alignment. As the discrepancy in your bite grows, the teeth closest to the empty space may shift toward it, causing other teeth to shift out of alignment, as well. The imbalance in your bite pressure can also expose remaining teeth to excessive amounts of pressure and increased risks of becoming structurally damaged.
Restoring your smile could mean more than you expect
When you lose a tooth, or multiple teeth, restoring your smile requires that you replace the teeth you’ve lost. In the immediate sense, this restores your smile’s appearance as well as your oral health and your bite’s function. With dental implants, it can even mean restoring the stimulation in your jawbone that your teeth roots were responsible for providing. However, the fact that you’ve experienced tooth loss means that other factors of your oral health may also be affected. This includes the strength and integrity of your jawbone structure, which loses mass and density over time following the loss of your teeth roots. To restore your smile, you may need to address more problems than just the loss of your teeth, especially if you wait to replace them.
Learn how to prevent tooth loss and preserve your smile
Modern dental treatment can help you restore most of your smile after experiencing tooth loss, but preventing it is almost always better for your long-term oral health. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, call Santa Rosa Oral Surgery in Santa Rosa, CA, today at 707-545-4625.
