Missing teeth are a common dental problem that people face following serious injuries to the mouth or as a result of tooth decay and advanced age. Thankfully there is a way to replace missing teeth with a hold that is as stable and secure as natural teeth. The solution involves dental appliances anchored into place using dental implants. The team at our Manhattan cosmetic dentistry center would like to take a moment right now to look at implant-supported dentures and how they can help you.
When you are missing many teeth, it can obviously affect your ability to eat the foods that you used to love. Reduced gum density, loss of bone in the jaw, and tooth misalignment are also possible when missing many teeth.
The loss of multiple teeth can also affect your ability to speak since a number of speech impediments can be caused by missing teeth. The appearance of your face, particularly around the lips and cheeks, will also seem sunken in or hollow. Only through advanced restorative dentistry can you have all of these matters addressed.
Removable dentures and dental bridges are a common way to alleviate the above problems. Dentures are held in place by bracing onto the gum tissue and bone structure in your mouth. Dental bridges, by comparison, are held in place by latching around adjacent remaining teeth. Both of these removable dental appliances are relatively secure, but they can slip or pop out at inopportune times. This is where dental implants come into play.
Dental implants are artificial tooth roots that are surgically placed into the jawbone and soft tissues of a person's mouth. During a months-long healing period, these titanium roots integrate with the natural structures in a patient's mouth, fusing until they are just as secure as natural tooth roots. When used to anchor dental bridges or dentures, there is little likelihood that the bridge or denture will slip out of place.
The best candidates for dental implants are people who are missing multiple teeth but still have sufficient gum and bone density to support the implants. These candidates should be in good overall health and not suffer from any sort of medical condition that would make surgery risky. Bone grafting surgeries and gum grafting surgeries can be performed in order to build the necessary bone and gum tissue, but this will add additional treatment time to the procedure.
If you are missing just one tooth rather than multiple teeth, you can actually get a single dental implant placed in the tooth gap to support a dental crown. Dental crowns are caps that fit right over an affected tooth. When in place, a dental crown will be able to restore the bite strength of a tooth and improve its overall appearance as well.
