Choosing the right option for replacing missing teeth can have big impact on your quality of life
Although senior citizens are keeping more of their natural teeth longer than ever, tooth loss still affects many older Americans. By age 65, over 27 percent of seniors have no teeth left at all. Whether you have lost one tooth, several teeth, or all your teeth, getting them replaced with a quality prosthesis is very important for your oral health and your quality of life.
How Tooth Replacement Affects Oral Health
Failing to replace even a single missing tooth can have serious consequences for your oral health. Neighboring teeth will tend to shift into the gap left by the missing tooth, causing problems with your smile and with your bite. Bone loss will also occur once the tooth’s roots are no longer in place, which can affect the stability of neighboring teeth as well as your appearance. Many options for replacing missing teeth, including bridges, partial dentures, and dental implants, can help prevent shifting of neighboring teeth. However, some of these options can bring their own problems. For example, food tends to get caught under bridgework quite easily, which can promote tooth decay and infections in neighboring teeth. Dentures can rub on gums and cause sores if not properly fitted. Dental implants, however, can replace missing teeth without introducing these kinds of oral health risks. They can even reverse bone loss in the jaw, which is something no other tooth replacement can accomplish.
How Tooth Replacement Affects Quality of Life
Tooth replacement can either make you more confident about your smile or embarrassed about it, depending on the quality of the option that you choose. This in turn will affect your quality of life, causing you to become more engaged with the world around you or withdrawn and depressed. Obviously it is important to choose carefully!
For example, if you choose the cheapest dentures possible, you’re likely to experience issues with slipping, clicking, and rubbing when speaking or eating. This may make you reluctant to go out to eat or talk with friends and loved ones. If, however, you choose a better-fitting set of dentures, you’ll have fewer embarrassing issues to worry about. And, if you choose implant-supported dentures, you will hardly notice you have false teeth at all. Implant-supported dentures are anchored to your jaw using titanium implant pegs, so they never rub or slip. In fact, they look so much like natural teeth that no one will even be able to tell you have dentures. To learn more about preventing tooth loss and replacing missing teeth, visit your dentist today.
