Losing a tooth puts a gap in your smile and can make you feel self-conscious all on its own. But what if the loss of that tooth triggered the loss of even more? Would you feel worse with multiple teeth missing? If so, check out this simple guide to find out why this phenomenon happens and to learn what you can do to put a stop to it.
Shifting
One of the first things that tends to happen to neighboring teeth when a tooth is lost is that they start to shift. Teeth sort of rely upon each other to stay in place — when you put pressure on one tooth, the teeth on either side of it help to keep it from leaning over gradually with time. When one of those teeth are lost, there's nothing keeping the neighbors in place anymore, and they may start to drift. Over time this can make them more likely to fall out as they effectively become loose.
Bone Loss
Losing a tooth also spells bad news for your jaw, which plays an integral role in protecting and supporting your teeth.
When you bite down, the pressure goes through the tooth to the jaw bone and stimulates it into growing replacement bone cells. When that bite process is lost, so is the bone growth, and the bone grows weaker as a result. If this goes on for long enough, the bone pulls away from the teeth and can't support them as effectively, making them more likely to fall out.
Getting Help
Getting help is as easy as visiting with a dentist. Bridges and dentures are both valid replacements for missing teeth, but if you want to avoid this damage from being done to your mouth and remaining teeth, you need a dental implant.
Dental implants are designed to replace a tooth in both form and function. In other words, they look and work like real teeth. Unlike other tooth replacements, dental implants go down beneath the surface of the gums and can transmit pressure just like a real tooth. As soon as an implant is in place and you start to chew on it, it'll begin to stimulate the bone to grow stronger again so that it can support both the implant and your real teeth.
Dental implants are a fantastic way of replacing missing teeth and the only method that stimulates bone growth in the jaw. If you're embarrassed by your missing tooth, don't let it turn into multiples. Talk to a dentist about getting dental implants right away.
For more information about dental implants, contact a dental clinic like Smile City.
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