What Dental Implants Can Do for You

Dental implants are an artificial tooth root most commonly made of titanium that are used to replace one or more missing teeth. They offer a lot of benefits and have several advantages over other tooth replacements such as dentures and dental bridges. Read on to learn more about what dental implants can do for you.

Prevent Bone Loss

One of the biggest benefits of dental implants is they help prevent future bone loss. One way your body knows to keep supplying your jaw with the minerals and nutrients it needs is from the pressure of your teeth biting down. However, when you lose a tooth, there is nothing to apply pressure and eventually your body takes nutrients from your jawbone to use elsewhere.

Dental implants act as a natural tooth root by applying that pressure and signaling to your body to keep supplying the nutrients. It takes anywhere from 2 to 6 months for your dental implant to bond to your jawbone, which is a process called osseointegration. Your jawbone will grow around and fuse with the implant as if it were a natural tooth root.

If it’s not properly treated within the right time frame, jawbone loss can lead to facial collapse. This is the continual breakdown of your jawbone over the years which visibly alters your appearance along with your ability to eat and speak.

Also, when you have a missing tooth, the immediately adjacent teeth will start leaning towards the open space and eventually fall out if it’s not addressed in time. This can make those teeth and gums more vulnerable to tooth decay and gingivitis plus make eating more difficult since your teeth aren’t properly aligned.

Restore Confidence

All teeth replacements help you eat, talk, and smile better which helps restore your confidence especially when you’re in more social settings. Dental implants, however, provide greater stability because they’re fused with your jawbone and give you the peace of mind that they won’t slip around.

Dental implants are topped with a crown that functions and appears like a normal tooth so it looks like you still have all your natural teeth. They can also replace multiple teeth. For example, you could get multiple implants that support full or partial dentures to prevent bone loss. If you have a couple missing teeth in different parts of your mouth, you could have multiple individual implants.

Healthy Jawbone & Gums

To qualify for the dental implant procedure, your gums and jawbone need to be healthy enough to support a dental implant. We may recommend a bone graft if you don’t have enough jawbone tissue to support a dental implant. During your consultation, our implant dentist can help you understand your options for replacing missing teeth.

Schedule a Dental Implant Consultation

If you’re missing one or more teeth and think dental implants are the best option for you, then you can request an implant consultation by giving us a call at (903) 984-1108. Dr. Angelina Odhiambo and her team look forward to seeing you!