A missing tooth can affect the health of your jaw
Often when people lose a tooth they shrug it off. Especially when it’s out of sight. After all, there are 29 more teeth—what’s one less. The thing about a missing tooth is that a tooth has many functions—and it’s a bit like an iceberg: there’s more to it than you can see. You see the tooth root acts as stimulation for your jawbone and the health of your gums.When you lose a tooth it will—over time—affect your facial profile
This is because when you lose a tooth the bone that ‘holds’ the tooth root in place starts to dissolve. Eventually, jawbone density starts to shrink and it will affect your gums and remaining teeth. As jawbone density shrinks, it gives you an aged, sunken appearance.How Smile Perfection Dental Group can treat your missing tooth problem
One of the most effective solutions for a missing tooth is implant dentistry. Implant dentistry is a whole tooth replacement that looks after your jaw, your gums and your remaining teeth. This is the treatment that has long-term health benefits like no other tooth-replacement treatment. Implant dentistry is about looking at your smile and determining what the best treatment for you is and providing it. While dental bridges and dentures can be effective tooth replacement treatments—they’re effective but they are not going to provide the stability, the restorative benefits and the functional benefits of implant dentistry.What is implant dentistry?
Simply put, this is where a missing tooth is replaced with a titanium post and a dental crown. The titanium post is biocompatible so there is next to no chance of your body rejecting the implant and the dental crown looks just like a natural tooth so no one else knows it’s an implant. The implant is inserted into where the tooth root was and is left to integrate with your jawbone. This process is called osseointegration and can take between three to six months. Once your jawbone has healed around the implant, the implant crown will be attached and you’ll have a whole tooth replacement. With the latest in dentistry, we can create an implant crown that will match the colour and shade of your natural teeth.What’s involved?
An implant dentistry treatment takes 3 to 6 months because of the time to heal. But it should be noted that 6 months is the extreme. The factors that contribute to the healing time of your dental implants are:- Your general health
- Your oral health
- Where the implant is placed (upper jaw takes longer than bottom jaw)
- Smoking—if you smoke it is recommend that you stop smoking (or at least cut back) prior to treatment because it will slow down the healing process.
- Your body’s natural ability to heal