Why Are Dental Implants the Best Replacements for Lost Teeth?

After carefully researching all of your options for replacing your lost tooth or teeth, you learn more than you originally expected about why dental implants may be your best option. However, you may not fully appreciate the reasons why until well after you’ve had your dental implants placed. At our Encinitas/San Diego periodontal office, we often recommend placing one or more dental implants to support a custom dental crown, bridge, or denture (depending on how many teeth you’ve lost) for many different reasons. Today, we explore those reasons and why dental implants are likely your best option.

They focus on more than appearance

Your smile’s appearance is the first thing you may notice about your tooth loss. The gap in your smile can have a detrimental impact on its appearance, which can have an equally detrimental effect on your overall confidence. Therefore, how your smile looks may play an important role in your decision to replace your lost teeth, as well as the specific prosthetic option you choose. Dental implants are designed to rest within your jawbone, underneath your gums, where they can’t be seen. However, they anchor your prosthesis in place, ensuring that it remains sturdy and realistic as you bite, chew, speak, and smile.

The roots you’ve lost had an important role

While dental implants give your replacement teeth a sturdier and more lifelike appearance, they also serve several other important functions in replacing your lost teeth roots. For example, after losing teeth, the missing spaces in your jawbone where your roots used to be can begin to erode, or lose mass and density. This is due to the lack of stimulation, which a traditional dental bridge or denture cannot reestablish. By placing dental implants within your jawbone, however, we can help you prevent this jawbone erosion, keeping the foundation of your smile healthier and stronger as time goes by.

Dental implants offer several unique benefits

By reestablishing the important roles of your lost teeth roots, dental implants provide several unique, highly important benefits for your immediate and long-term oral health. The preservation of your jawbone’s strength and integrity is one, for example. By preventing jawbone erosion, dental implants can help you improve your chances of retaining the rest of your healthy, natural teeth for life. You can also reduce the risks of your dental bridge or denture shifting and slipping along your dental ridge due to a shrinking jawbone.

Find out if dental implants are right for you

Because of their unique ability to mimic your lost teeth roots, dental implants are often the best option for rebuilding your smile after tooth loss. For more information, schedule a consultation with Dr. Kania by calling her periodontal office in Encinitas/San Diego, CA, at (760) 642-0711.