How Missing Teeth Can Affect Your Health
We often take our teeth for granted and it isn’t until they’re gone that we realize the major role they play in our lives. Teeth help us form words when we speak and enjoy the foods we love, to name a few things. Fortunately, if you have gaps in your smile, our Hilliard dentist can help you through the process of replacing missing teeth.
Here’s why you should choose tooth replacement sooner than later.
The Health Effects of Missing Teeth
can cause a wide variety of health effects. This is largely because when teeth aren’t there, it’s harder to properly chew food. This mechanical breakdown helps the digestive system access and absorb the nutrients in food, but when you can’t chew properly, you may miss out on that nutritional value.
Absent teeth may also cause you to avoid certain foods entirely because they’re especially hard or impossible to chew. This may include certain meats, nuts, raw vegetables, or other hard foods. The longer you wait when it comes to replacing a missing tooth, the more nutrients your body misses out on and the more your health could potentially decline.
Why People Chew Their Food
This section header probably sounds like the answer is common knowledge. People chew their food to make it easier to swallow and easier to digest. However, did you know that If your body can’t properly digest food, you’re more likely to develop bacteria in your colon. This can result in indigestion.
You may think “how much should I chew?” Long enough so you no longer recognize the food in your mouth. Thoroughly chewed food shouldn’t have its original texture, size, or shape. For example, you should no longer be able to detect, say, the shape of a mushroom or a floret of broccoli. Bread should feel like a paste or a mush depending on how wet your mouth is.
So chewing becomes one of the key ingredients in a healthy lifestyle. This is just one of the reasons why pursuing one of many available tooth replacement options is so important. Another reason is that missing teeth often impacts your ability to speak properly and may discourage you from smiling, both can take a big toll on your self-confidence.
Popular Tooth Replacement Options
Dental Implants
Dental implants are prosthetic tooth roots made of titanium that resemble a screw.Each single-tooth implant is surgically embedded into the jawbone instead of simply resting on top of the gums. Our dental implant dentist stands by their many benefits including preventing bone loss in your jaw, lasting longer than other forms of tooth restoration (a lifetime with excellent care), and no impact on surrounding teeth, i.e., reshaping for fit purposes.
Dental Bridges
A dental bridge consists of a prosthetic tooth held in place by two porcelain dental crowns that are placed on top of adjacent teeth. This requires our local family dentist to remove a minimal amount of enamel from both healthy teeth to make sure each crown fits.
Learn More → Dental Bridges: Types & Advantages
A may be the right option for people that don’t want the invasive surgery dental implants require. Also, to receive a dental implant your jawbone must have a certain amount of density to support the titanium root, and those with less density may not qualify unless a bone graft is performed.
Dentures
Removable dentures are probably the most well known option of all three. Dentures need to be kept moist at all times otherwise they will dry out, warp, and crack. When they’re not in your mouth be sure to keep them in a glass of water or denture cleaner.
If you want the and dentures, ask our dentist about implant-supported dentures. This is ideal if you need a whole arch of teeth replaced, but you’re not the biggest fan of traditional dentures that may shift over time. Of course, partial dentures are also an option if you need to replace multiple consecutive teeth.
Request an Appointment
If you are interested in getting a tooth replaced, our , provides dental implants, bridges, and dentures so you can choose what’s best for you. Call Gibson Dental today at (614) 878-9562 or contact us online to request an appointment.
This blog post has been updated.