15 Sep Dental Implants: A great investment into your health
Did you know that having lost or missing teeth for a prolonged spell is not only detrimental to your smile, but can also have an adverse effect on your physical and emotional wellbeing? You may not think it, but your teeth work collectively as a unit to efficiently help with biting, chewing and swallowing food; and to help with speech.
But, when a tooth is lost, the efficiency of the remaining teeth becomes compromised. Implant dentistry can, however, restore lost efficiency through dental implant treatment.
Regardless of the reason for the loss, when a tooth is missing, it compromises the strength of the remaining teeth in that they begin to shift position. This shifting of teeth is called malocclusion and can lead to bite realignment, and further tooth loss as teeth become loose due to a lack of support from neighbouring teeth. This in turn has the potential effect to alter dietary intake and render some foods off the menu as a result.
In addition to teeth shifting, tooth loss results in additional pressure being applied to the jaw joint in order to compensate for the loss of the teeth. This additional pressure can lead to temporomandibular disorder, which is a debilitating condition affecting the jawbone and the pain suffered can spread to other parts of the body.
Tooth loss can also have emotional effects, altering a person’s confidence in their own smile and can lead to depression, as smiling and laughing, and even speech can become an issue.
An implant dentist can address all these issues through the use of dental implants. These implants can replace the lost tooth, helping to restore function and confidence, and avoid the numerous issues that accompany a lost tooth, such as loss of jawbone mass and gum tissue, and the associated potential health issues a prolonged missing tooth can cause.
Teeth play a major role in a person’s ability to communicate through smiling and speech, and also the body’s ability to ingest and digest food, and to maintain bone mass and facial structure. We might take them for granted, but having a healthy and complete set of teeth can have a profound positive effect on our physical and mental wellbeing, and cannot be underestimated.
For more information about dental implants, contact The Dental Place in Grand Prairie TX at 972-264-5795 to schedule your professional consultation.