If you are missing teeth, it can affect the way you eat, look, and speak. Whether you are missing one tooth or multiple teeth, dental implants are a permanent solution that may be right for you.
How Can Missing Teeth Affect My Oral Health?
A missing tooth is more than a gap in your mouth; it can be harmful to your oral health. For instance, it can affect the amount of bone in your mouth. After your natural tooth falls out, the bone mass of your jaw can quickly decrease around that area. This, in turn, affects the nerves, muscles, and gums in your mouth. This can make your jaw weak and cause difficulty chewing.
Missing teeth can also affect your home oral care routines. When your gums are exposed, brushing and flossing can be difficult, uncomfortable, and even painful. To avoid discomfort, you may not do a thorough job, or you may not brush and floss as often as you should. This can lead to more plaque buildup than usual, and eventually, more tooth decay.
When you lose a tooth, other teeth around the area can shift and become weak. Your remaining teeth may not function as well, even if they are otherwise healthy.
Dental implants can eliminate all of these concerns. Because implants can fill these gaps with a tooth-like replacement, you will not experience bone-loss, and your daily brushing and flossing routines will be easy and pain-free. Your natural teeth will be healthy, and remain in place as well.
How Can Dental Implants Affect Your Overall Health?
Missing teeth can also affect your diet and nutrition. Gaps in your mouth can make it difficult to bite or chew. If this is the case, you may be avoiding a variety of foods that you should eat every day. If you are limiting your diet to soft foods, you are not obtaining adequate nutrition from meats, crunchy veggies, fruits, and more!
If you are continuing to eat these foods without being able to chew properly, this can affect your digestive system. Partially chewed foods are more difficult to digest, so this may cause pain and discomfort even after you swallow.
For these reasons, your general health will benefit from implants. You can enjoy a wide range of nutritious foods, and stay healthy.
How Will Dental Implants Improve My Smile?
At Hawkins Dentistry, we want you to be proud of your smile. If you have gaps in your teeth or are experiencing pain or discomfort, you may be hesitant to smile or laugh. Dental implants are a permanent solution that can restore your smile and make you feel comfortable showing it off again!
Schedule an appointment today to discuss your options with Dr. Hawkins. He will be happy to assess your individual situation and determine which teeth replacement option is right for you.
