Dr. Bodak on Missing Teeth: Many adults have missing permanent teeth that have been lost due to injury, disease or decay. Not only do missing teeth make you look older than you are, they can also be detrimental to both your health and well-being. If you have teeth that are missing, replacing them can dramatically improve your appearance by improving your smile. This will also improve how you feel about yourself.

In our grandparents’ day, there was often little opportunity for quality dental care. As a result, people expected to lose at least some of their teeth by their mid-adult years. As they began to lose teeth, their faces started to age prematurely. Losing a permanent tooth is similar to losing other parts of your body. Would you be content to lose a finger, even though you had nine others? Of course not. You could still use your hand, but you know that your hand works best when no parts are missing. Your mouth and jaw also function best when you have all 28 permanent adult teeth. Many people have lost all four wisdom teeth without any loss of function, but the other 28 adult teeth are a different story.

Each tooth functions both individually and also as part of your bite. When you lose a tooth, there is an empty space or gap left behind that affects each of the opposing teeth. If one or more missing permanent adult teeth are not replaced, the spaces or gaps will cause your remaining teeth to shift to a new spot. As these teeth shift, your bite will be disturbed and you may develop TMJ (temporomandibular joint) symptoms with jaw clicking or soreness. The gaps also become the perfect place for food to become trapped, which increases your risk of gum disease and tooth decay. If you lose enough teeth, you will also be unable to chew your food effectively.

Avoid future TMJ problems and collapse of your bite. Replacing missing teeth promptly can help prevent movement of your remaining teeth and can help preserve your bite. When a tooth is lost, the supporting bone in the jaw begins to dissolve. This is known as bone resorption. Bone resorption is an ongoing, continual and permanent process; it never stops throughout your lifetime until you replace the missing tooth. The longer the tooth is missing, the more bone is lost to resorption. This makes it more difficult to do dental restoration to replace the missing teeth.

If you have dentures, you are already experiencing ongoing bone loss and premature facial aging, as you lose more and more of your bone from your  jaw . Your profile and facial appearance starts to age more rapidly.  Loose dentures accelerate the rate of bone loss even more. Even if one or more teeth were lost long ago, replacing them with dental implants now can stabilize your bite and bone tissue, reduce TMJ stress, improve your ability to eat a variety of foods and enhance your smile and facial appaearance.

So replacing a tooth as soon as possible after it is lost is key to maintaining proper oral health and maintaining your facial proportions. Restoring missing teeth will reduce the shifting of teeth due to gaps and will also help prevent bone loss.

Your oral health and dental care is important to me.

Dr. L. Z. Bodak-G
www.MediaPADentist.com

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Tags: Cosmetic Dentistry, Cosmetic Dentists, Dental Implant, Dentist Reviews