It can be hard to feel comfortable with your smile after you have suffered tooth loss. Conspicuous gaps can make you feel self-conscious, to the point where you try to hide your teeth from people’s view. Your dentist can offer a prosthetic solution that helps you regain your confidence in your smile. This is more than just a cosmetic benefit – having less than a full set of teeth can also be trouble for your oral health. Your forced adjustments when biting and chewing can cause you to strain your jaw badly enough to develop TMD. You also bring back support to teeth neighboring an absence. Your particular prosthetic needs can determine what restoration is best for you. For instance, a dental bridge can help close an isolated gap, but disconnected absences could call for partial dentures.
How Tooth Loss Affects Your Oral Health Condition
Tooth loss has several adverse effects on your oral health. One problem is that it can upset your daily function. You might find yourself awkwardly working around a gap while biting or chewing food, and that uncomfortable adjustment can put a lasting strain on your jaw joints. You might also lose more teeth, as those teeth next to a gap have less support.
Should You Support Your Prosthetic With A Dental Implant?
Dental implants can solve a problem with tooth loss that will not be stopped with a restoration alone – jawbone resorption. When a tooth root is absent, the bone around where it was formerly housed can start to deteriorate. This lowers the support your jaw can offer. Dental implants can be used to hold individual crowns, as well as bridges and dentures.
