When you lose a tooth, or as in some cases, teeth (this happens more than you might think), your life changes, and not for the better. The first change is obvious, as those gaps in your teeth will ruin your smile;leading to a drop in self-confidence. It won’t help that missing teeth will cause your face to cave-in like a flan in a cupboard. You’ll notice too that it has become much harder to chew food, and even speaking so that you’re understood becomes a challenge.
As your jaw gradually moves out of alignment (your teeth play a major role in keeping your jaws “straight”) your teeth that are left will sustain serious damage; the fractures, chips, and cracks are gateways for infection and serious disease. It even gets worse from here, as your remaining teeth will even start to move out of place because of the space created by gaps. It’s no wonder then that if you’ve lost one tooth, you’ll eventually lose another (and another, and another) until you do something about it.
It used to be, if you needed to have your missing teeth replaced, your only options were either a dental bridge (an artificial tooth or set of teeth supported by a pair of crowns), or dentures. Today, you have a third option: dental implants from Santa Fe Dental in Edmond, OK.
Dental implants are far and away the superior solution for replacing lost teeth. Dental implants will give you back your smile, as well as the total function of your teeth without the compromises of more conventional solutions.
How Are Dental Implants Better Than Dentures or a Bridge?
It’s not that dentures or a bridge won’t work; in fact, many people still get these more traditional procedures and appliances for several reasons, including not being healthy enough to get dental implants (more on what makes a good candidate for dental implants later). However, assuming you are healthy enough to have dental implants installed, they offer better performance, better aesthetics, with less maintenance, all with one installation. Dental implants that have been placed properly by a skilled dentist will last you the rest of your life; there won’t be any need to return to the dentist to replace dental implants that have “worn out” (with the exception of implants that are broken due to injury). You will need to have your implants checked by your dentist regularly, but this shouldn’t be any more inconvenient than the twice yearly visits you already make to the dentist.
How Do Dental Implants Stack Up Against Dentures?
Dentures are still very popular; they have the lowest cost of all three solutions for missing teeth, which accounts for much of their popularity. It must be that because dentures have a lot of problems; if dentures were more expensive, we doubt they’d be very much in use at all.
Dentures: A Bad Fit
Dentures are a form of prosthetics; they simulate the appearance, and to a limited degree, the function of normal teeth. They are custom-designed to fit your mouth. Dentures depend on their fit to stay in place and do their job; though adhesives are also used, your dentures (theoretically) stay in place by how they interact with your oral tissues (such as the roof of your mouth and gums) and certain teeth, depending on where the dentures are in your mouth.
Dentures do look like normal teeth, but they don’t work as well. As it turns out, your teeth are deceptively simple; nothing we have developed in dental technology can match your natural teeth; it’s a pretty tough standard to reach, but dentures fail miserably in this regard: dentures only allow you to have 10% of your natural biting strength. The strength of your bite determines the food you eat and how you sound when you speak among other things. When you have dentures, you are operating on “Teeth Lite”.
Besides reduced performance, dentures have another problem. The fit that is so important to their successful functioning will eventually be lost. There are lots of reasons why dentures lose their fit: for example, if you lose weight, it will change the shape of your oral tissues and cause dentures to no longer fit as they once did!
Dentures that slip and slide are so common, it has become a cliché: who hasn’t seen some lame sitcom where Grandma’s teeth fall out, usually into a glass? It might look sort of funny on television, but if you’re out and about when suddenly your dentures fall out of your mouth, it won’t seem like something to laugh about.
Beyond embarrassment, slippery dentures can cause infections. Mouth sores will form where the dentures rub up against your oral tissues, and these become pathways for infection and eventually disease (that might make you lose even more teeth).
Don’t Settle for Dentures! Learn Today if You Can Have Dental Implants!
In our next post, we’ll talk more about the benefits and advantages of dental implants, and what it takes to receive them.
Of course, you don’t have to wait for our next blog post: simply give us a call and make an appointment!
Dial 405-757-2030 to reach our office, Santa Fe Dental in Edmond, OK, or click here to access our online appointment form and book your consultation right now!
