Dental Implants in Flagstaff: Fighting 4 Ill Effects of a Missing Tooth

If you are missing one or more teeth, chances you are realize how it can affect your appearance. Maybe you’ve made adjustments to how you eat, speak, and smile to compensate for its loss. Maybe you even think you’ve figured out how to live without that tooth and thus avoid the need to replace it. You’re fine without it, right? It only affects your mouth, right? Your missing tooth can impact so much more than your oral health—your overall well-being can also suffer. The best solution is to restore your missing teeth with dental implants in Flagstaff!

Bone Loss

A natural tooth is held in place by supporting tissues and the jaw bone. When a permanent tooth is extracted, the bone is no longer stimulated. Over time, you can actually lose bone density, which can affect your remaining healthy teeth and eventually change your facial shape. That’s why dentures and bridges need to be replaced as often as they do. Your face can change shape and require more dental work to better suit your current needs. Dental implants are the only option that recreate the natural structure of teeth, stimulating jaw bone growth and bonding with it to secure it in place. With the proper care, dental implants can last for 30 or more years and help preserve your bone health.

Poor Nutrition

If you choose not to replace your missing tooth, many everyday tasks can become more difficult. Take your eating habits, for example. You likely have had to adjust how you chew to work around your missing tooth, but have you started avoiding some foods because they are more difficult to eat? If yes, then you could be missing necessary nutrients in your diet, which can affect your overall health. By restoring your tooth with a dental implant, you can bite and chew with confidence, enabling you to maintain a healthy diet.

Failure to Fully Chew

Your molars are responsible for grinding up solid foods so that they are more easily digested in your stomach. If you are missing even one of them, you may not be chewing your food as well as before. This can cause indigestion or acid reflux. Dental implants help ensure that your food is properly chewed and easy to digest.

Shifting Teeth and Bite

Although teeth have a strong connection with the jaw bone, they can still shift. To compensate for the missing one, your remaining teeth can move to fill in the gap. These shifts can result in an irregular bite, which can cause many problems including the following:

• Headaches.
• Pain in your teeth or jaw.
• Excessive wear on the tooth enamel.
• Chips or cracks in your teeth.

Dental implants help keep your remaining natural teeth in place and help you maintain your bite alignment.

The benefits of replacing your missing tooth with dental implants vastly outweigh the risks of leaving that gap in your smile. Not only can you restore your appearance, but you can also promote your oral and overall health for the long term. You may have had a tooth extracted, but there is a solution that can spare you from the ill effects of a missing tooth. Talk to your dentist in Flagstaff today about dental implants and restore your smile’s look and health!