Resolve Your Missing Teeth Issues In The New Year

Options for Wickford patients for replacing lost or missing teeth.

If you lost a tooth during the year and have not done anything to replace it, this blog will hopefully be helpful to you. Many people who lose teeth that aren’t visible to those around them fail to have them replaced. From an aesthetic point of view, this does seem to make sense, although, as we will see, it really isn’t a good idea.

Those who have lost front teeth are more likely to have taken action to replace them, very possibly with dentures, and have found that they are not as they hoped they would be. In the spirit of that famous Christmas song’ ‘all I want for christmas is my two front teeth’, let us take a look in our last blog before the festive season at what your options are for replacing any teeth that have been lost this year, or previously for that matter.

Leaving a gap

No one wants to have a gappy smile so no matter how reluctant you might be to wear dentures, it is likely that this will be the route you might initially look to take. From an aesthetic point of view, dentures will fulfil much of the criteria. As people who have done this will know though, it can have its drawbacks. Dentures can be quite unstable at times, especially when eating certain foods and even when speaking to others. This can cause them to become loose which can become quite noticeable to those around you. On rare occasions they may even fall out. Either of these situations can be quite embarrassing in company but can also make everyday tasks such as eating quite difficult.

Even where a tooth is lost in an area of the mouth where the gap won’t be seen, problems are likely to occur. Eating some foods may be more difficult and the fact that the root of the tooth will also have been lost means that there is now a space that other teeth may encroach into. As they do this, others may follow in the gaps that they create. This can eventually lead to teeth becoming quite crooked and uneven and you may need one of the orthodontic treatments that we offer at the Cygnet Dental Practice in Wickford.

The dentures option

As we have already mentioned, dentures, or ‘false teeth’ as they are sometimes known, are a popular choice for replacing teeth that have been lost. Their appeal is obvious; they can be the cheaper option and usually won’t require any invasive dentistry although in some cases it may be necessary to remove a tooth if multiple teeth are being replaced in this way.

The advantages really stop there though. The biggest issue for people who wear dentures is usually that of stability. As they have no ‘roots’ to anchor the dentures in the mouth. This can cause a number of issues including soreness of the gums from movement, difficulty eating some foods and also potential speech issues, to say nothing of the embarrassment caused when talking to others if they start to move around in the mouth.

As you will see shortly, we believe that while dentures have played an important role in the past, they are quickly being overtaken by dental implants as the best option. The one area where dentures may have an temporary advantage is where someone plays a contact sport such as football. It is easier to take dentures out while playing than to restore implants that have been damaged by a blow to the face. In the longer run though, we believe that teeth implants are a superior option.

Teeth implants

Firstly, it is important to understand what dental implants are. They comprise of three sections; the implant itself which is an artificial tooth root which is secured into the jaw bone, the crown part which is the visible replacement tooth and the abutment which is used to attach the previous two components together.

Unlike dentures, dental implants do require an invasive treatment in order for the implant to be placed in the jawbone. This can seem quite daunting to some patients but there is no reason why this should cause any more discomfort than some other treatments. We are more than happy to discuss any concerns about this that you might have.

Once the implant has been placed, a period of typically three months is needed for the bone and implant to ‘fuse’ together, a process known as osseointegration. This provides an exceptionally strong anchor for the replacement tooth and it is this which provides the strength and security that dental implants are well known for.

In addition to this benefit, dentures may need to be replaced or repaired due to damages caused when cleaning them outside the mouth, often by dropping them. Implants are much easier to keep clean and providing that you brush your teeth well and floss them too, your dental implants should last for twenty years or even more. Having an implant placed then may feel quite a challenging experience to some but after this one treatment, you will have a long term, strong and secure replacement tooth.

We hope that today’s blog has provided you with some inspiration and if you wish to discuss this further with one of our implant dentists in the new year, we would be pleased to arrange an initial consultation with you. You can do this by calling the Cygnet Dental Practice on 01268 733078.

In the meantime, as this will be our last blog until the new year, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our patients a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!