You may think that you can live with an incomplete set of teeth. As long as you have enough to chew your food and keep your smile, you should be fine, right? Actually, the impact may not be immediate, but over time, you will come to see how important it is that you replace lost teeth as soon as possible. Doing so is the best way to avoid the undesirable situations that develop in the absence of one or more of your teeth.
Not only do implants preserve the good appearance of your smile, they also help preserve your overall dental health. For example, you may not realize this but having even just one missing tooth can eventually lead to the severe misalignment of your jaw. This is problematic because misalignments of your teeth and jaw can further develop into TMJ (temporomandibular jaw disorder), which brings about a lot of pain and discomfort. When you have dental implants filling up the space and replacing the lost tooth, you won’t have to worry about having your teeth falling out of their alignment and the other problems that can follow.
Here are some other benefits that you can enjoy from quality dental implants:
Dental implants help against bone loss and gum deterioration.
Here is what can happen in the scenario mentioned above when there are missing teeth and the other teeth begin to fall out of alignment. In the case of missing teeth, the area of the lost tooth undergoes bone loss and gum deterioration. This is because without the tooth there is a break in the relationship between all of the teeth, the jaw and the gum line. There’s an old saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and this is actually a good metaphor for your teeth, jaw and gums. You see, without the connection between all of the teeth in your system, the area with the missing tooth is a break in the system of support that all the teeth contribute to. So, the absence of just one tooth weakens the entire structure making for an overall weakened oral environment.
Dental implants help protect against infection.
If your tooth has serious cavity and decay issues, it is quite possible that infection may develop and spread, ultimately affecting everything else. With dental implants, the buck stops with the replaced tooth. Because the “sick” tooth is extracted and replaced with a good quality material, and the mouth can then become healthy once more.
Dental implants help preserve good oral health.
Dental implants are not affected by bacteria, which basically makes it immune from any possible damage from decay. As long as you give it the same proper care as you would your natural teeth, you won’t have to worry anymore about that particular tooth becoming affected by oral disease.
Sources
Dental Implants: Surgery, Advantages, Risks, and Insurance Qualifications, WebMD
Advantages and Disadvantages of Dental Implants, Academy of Osseointegration
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