Improving Your Dental Care

If You'Ve Lost A Tooth, You'Re At A Higher Risk Of Losing More

Losing a tooth can be a traumatic experience, but once it's extracted or has fallen out, you're not out of the woodwork yet. Unfortunately, losing just one tooth can put you at a higher risk of losing more teeth. If you didn't know that and don't know what you can do to help protect your teeth, then read this simple guide to find out.

How Oral Health Worsens

Oral health typically gets worse after a person has lost a tooth. Oftentimes the person who has lost a tooth won't have great oral health to begin with, but even if you did, you're still at a higher risk of losing more.

This is because your teeth do more than help you to chew. Your teeth provide pressure that travels through the entire tooth and transfers into the gums and jaw bone. This pressure stimulates gum tissues, encouraging good blood flow and circulation, and tells the jaw bone to grow new bone cells to replace old ones. However, if just one tooth is lost, this process doesn't occur in the area of the mouth where the tooth once was.

This can potentially put your other teeth at risk of being lost and your gums at risk of developing gum disease. But the good news is that there are things you can do to prevent this.

What Can Be Done to Mitigate Risk

First of all, you can start by visiting with a dentist more often. While just having a dental cleaning can't restore what the tooth once did for your mouth, it can help to catch problems like gum disease and poor tooth health early on. From there, your dentist can help to treat the condition so that you have a lower risk of losing your other teeth.

The Real Improvement

The best thing you can do, though, is to have that missing tooth replaced with a dental implant. While there are many tooth replacement methods, dental implants restore the functionality of a tooth because they work the same way as a real tooth. A titanium rod takes the place of the tooth's root, but transfers pressure to the gums and jaw bone just as efficiently. This means that you'll no longer have a gap in your smile, and most importantly, your oral health will be in better shape.

If you've considered having your tooth replaced but weren't sure whether to choose a bridge, implant, or denture, consider going with a dental implant for the best effect.

 


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