Benefits of Dental Implants

Why Replace Missing Teeth

We understand that many people may wonder why they should replace their missing teeth. However, failing to replace missing teeth can lead to many problems, including:

• An unattractive smile
• Shifting your other teeth
• Impacted food and infection in the tooth socket
• Increased risk of gum disease
• Bite problems
• Loss of jawbone, increasing risk of jaw fractures
• Risk of more tooth loss

A missing tooth is one of the most visible smile problems. When people see a missing tooth, they not only think your smile is unattractive, but they may jump to conclusions about your education, overall health, economic status, and social status.

Our teeth depend on each other, and when one is lost, the others can begin to shift because they are no longer braced in place.

Food can get jammed into the space where your tooth used to be. This impacted food can lead to bad breath, cavities, and even potentially serious infections. The most common infection you’ll experience related to impacted food is gum disease. Gum disease doesn’t just affect your teeth; it can contribute to heart problems and other serious health conditions.

Without all your teeth to support a healthy bite, you might develop bite problems, such as temporomandibular joint disorders, called TMJ or TMD.

Your teeth stimulate your jawbone. When one or more is lost, the body removes what it perceives as unnecessary bone, weakening the jawbone.

Many of the above effects of missing teeth can increase your risk of losing more teeth. Gum disease, in particular, is the leading cause of tooth loss among adults, so it’s important to talk to a dentist in Rancho Mirage about replacing your missing teeth somehow.

Why Dental Implants Are the Best Tooth Replacement Option

Fortunately, there are many ways to replace your missing teeth. However, none of them does as good a job of replacing your lost teeth as dental implants.

Dental implants offer many benefits. They:

• Look like natural teeth
• Function like natural teeth
• Feel mostly like natural teeth
• Support themselves
• Stimulate your jawbone
• Can last a lifetime

With all these benefits, dental implants have increased tremendously in popularity since their introduction.

Dental Implants Look Natural

Dental implants look more natural than other tooth replacement options. Unlike a denture, which has replacement teeth set in a plastic base, a dental implant goes right in your jawbone like a natural tooth. It can support a replacement tooth that will have gums up and around it in a completely natural-looking way. Plus, your implants will always stay in place–they won’t fall out like dentures.

Eat All Your Favorite Foods with Dental Implants

Unlike natural teeth, dentures rest on your gums. Because your gums are not as strong as your bones, dentures reduce your ability to bite and chew. Many people find they can’t eat all the foods they used to with dentures. However, dental implants anchor in your bone like natural teeth. You can bite and chew normally, so you won’t have to give up any foods.

Dental Implants Feel Natural

Dentures are appliances that you put in your mouth, and they feel like it. Many people feel like their mouth is crowded with dentures. Some even gag every time they put their dentures in.

Dental implants feel like natural teeth. They don’t feel like you have something else in your mouth. Some people notice that an implant doesn’t have nerves to sense pressure and temperature, but for many people, an implant feels just like any other tooth.

Dental Implants Support Themselves

Other tooth replacement options rely on your natural teeth for support. A partial denture will have clasps, hooks, or other forms that loop around your natural teeth. A dental bridge is supported by crowns on your natural teeth. In both cases, the support structures can affect your remaining teeth.

Dental implants support themselves using your natural bone. They don’t rely on your natural teeth, so they don’t put your teeth at risk.

Dental Implants Stimulate Your Jawbone

Other tooth replacement options–dentures and bridges–don’t utilize your jawbones for support. This means that your body still removes the bone from where you lost teeth.

However, dental implants use the bone for support, and this stimulates the body to retain your jawbone.

Dental Implants Can Last a Lifetime

Finally, dental implants can last a lifetime. With proper care to avoid gum disease, the implant stimulates the bone around itself to keep itself secure. There are documented cases of implants lasting fifty years or more. Many implants outlive their owners, being still in place after decades of healthy function.

Get Dental Implants in Rancho Mirage

Now that you understand the benefits of dental implants, now is the time to consider whether they’re right for you. Rancho Mirage implant dentist Dr. Rod Strober can evaluate your oral and overall health to determine whether you will benefit from dental implants.

Please call (760) 832-7915 or use our online form to request a consultation today at Country Club Dentistry in Rancho Mirage, right next to the Rancho Mirage Country Club.