When you lose a tooth, you lose so much more than your beautiful smile. Both body image and confidence can take a knock, which can affect your social and professional relationships and interactions. Even one missing tooth can alter your ability to enjoy your favourite foods, whilst when several teeth are missing your diet can be severely restricted – with obvious knock-on effects for your general health and wellbeing.
People often think that tooth loss only affects the older generation, but in fact it can affect anyone at any stage of life. If you knock a tooth out, for example falling off your bike, you should see an emergency dentist as soon as possible.
In some cases the dentist can successfully reimplant the knocked out tooth in the socket, strapping it to adjacent teeth for support for a few weeks until it heals back into position. But what if your dentist is unable to put your tooth back, or you’ve lost more than one tooth?
There are now several ways dentists can replace missing teeth. Sheen Dental Implants in Richmond offers a wide range of tooth replacement options, including using dental implants (bionic tooth roots) to permanently replace anything from one to all of your teeth.
Dental implants are often the best long-term solution to tooth loss, because they produce the most realistic action – meaning that you will be able to eat what you choose – and, combined with either a single crown for one lost tooth or an implant-retained bridge or denture for several or all missing teeth, the results look so natural few people will even realise your new teeth aren’t the ones you’ve had for all of your adult life.
Unlike traditional dentures or bridges, new teeth attached to dental implants also help to maintain the health of your jaw bone. This is important for several reasons: first and foremost, a healthy, strong jaw bone helps to keep your teeth in position, avoiding the issue of slipping dentures.
If your jaw bone starts to shrink it can also cause skin around the jowls to sag and can alter the appearance of your face, aging you. Dental implants prevent all these issues.