Missing teeth can affect the way you feel about your smile. At The Dental Surgery in London, we offer a range of solutions for missing teeth such as dental implants, dental bridges and dentures.
About teeth replacement
Why replace your teeth?
Missing teeth can sometimes be a problem for many, whilst for others, they can learn to ‘work around’ the fact that they can no longer make use of some of their teeth.
Whilst every situation is different for everyone, there are a couple of medical reasons why missing teeth should be replaced.
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Teeth migration
When teeth are lost, they create gaps. Naturally, the space created by the missing tooth will gradually get closed by the adjoining teeth, known as teeth migration.
Whilst the teeth themselves don’t actually ‘move’ into the gap, the lack of support from the missing tooth, allows the adjoining teeth to ‘sag’ into the empty position.
This will inevitably change your ‘bite’ leading to problems with closing your mouth, eating, chipped teeth, saw jaw joints and even headaches.
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Chewing
People who have lost their teeth are less likely to be chewing their food properly, resulting in malnutrition.
Chewing is essential to breaking down your food so you can digest it properly, obtaining all the proteins, vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy and balanced meal.
Not replacing those missing teeth can have adverse effects on your health and wellbeing through lack of nutrition.
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Bone loss
Perhaps the most significant change to your mouth when not replacing missing teeth.
Once teeth are lost, the surrounding bone structure is no longer used, starting the decline in bone structure. This can impact your speech, self-confidence jaw stability and even affect the surrounding ‘healthy’ teeth.
By not replacing your missing teeth, you run the risk of weakening your mouth and impacting your overall health
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Long term costs
Not replacing your teeth within a reasonable timeframe will make it more difficult in the future to do so with implants. Simply put, if there is no bone structure (due to degradation) it’s more difficult to put in implants, thus other methods and techniques are required, which could end up costing more.
Don’t put off finding a solution for missing teeth!
Teeth replacement options
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Dental implants
A dental implant is a fixed artificial tooth held in place on a titanium or ceramic screw placed inside the jaw.
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Dentures
A removable acrylic plate or metal frame holding one or more artificial teeth.
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Bridges
Fixed artificial tooth or teeth held in place by the adjacent teeth.
