Have you lost one or more teeth? You must be wondering whether or not you should replace your missing teeth. The answer is yes! Missing a tooth is no fun as it changes the way you eat and the appearance of your smile. But besides the aesthetic appeal, missing a tooth can be harmful to your dental health. That’s why it’s important to replace the tooth with a dental implant, a dental bridge, removable partial dentures, etc. Below we’ll go over why you should replace your missing teeth and the options you have for replacing them.
1. Missing Teeth Causes Your Teeth to Shift
The most important reason for replacing your missing teeth is that their absence can cause significant issues with the alignment of your teeth and your bite. This is due to nearby teeth moving towards the empty space in an attempt to close the gap in your smile. This can negatively alter your bite and smile. The only way to prevent this problem is by replacing your tooth.
2. You’ll Feel Less Confident About Your Smile
Losing one or more teeth can feel uncomfortable and embarrassing, especially if it’s your front teeth. This causes people to be very self-conscious about their smiles, particularly when in social settings. Unfortunately, there is a social stigma associated with missing teeth, so this causes people to avoid smiling, laughing, and hiding their teeth in situations where socialization occurs. Replacing your teeth will restore your confidence and allow you to be you!
3. You Could Have Trouble Speaking
The absence of teeth causes a wide array of inconveniences in people’s day-to-day lives. Losing more than one tooth can make it significantly more difficult to speak clearly. Speaking requires coordination between a person’s muscles and oral structures like their lips, teeth, tongue, cheeks, and vocal tract. Even though some of these oral structures play more significant roles than others, all of them play a role in producing speech. That is why when one oral structure does not function properly, the person’s entire speech can be affected.
4. You Could Have Trouble Eating
Losing one’s teeth can make it difficult to eat one’s favorite foods. For example, losing your front teeth will make it markedly more difficult to bite into foods like apples, corn, or bagels. Losing your back teeth makes it harder to eat fibrous foods like meat and raw vegetables. Eating with missing teeth can eventually lead to gum, jaw, and digestive problems. Tooth replacement is the only solution to these issues; if not waving goodbye to your favorite foods.
5. Tooth Loss Can Cause Bone Resorption
When you lose a tooth, the jaw bone underneath starts to weaken. This is because, normally, the root of your tooth sends pressure and stimulation to the jaw bone when chewing and biting. But when the jaw bone is no longer being stimulated, it begins to weaken. Dental implants are the only solution to this problem. Unlike other tooth replacements like dental bridges and dentures, dental implants replace the missing tooth root and stimulate the jaw bone, preventing the loss of bone entirely!
If you’ve lost one or more teeth in El Cajon or anywhere in San Diego, Dental Arts San Diego can help restore your dental health and smile. Whether it be a dental implant, a dental bridge, or removable partial dentures, we can help! We hope this blog helped you understand why you should replace your missing teeth. Come speak with us to explore all of your options to see which one will work best for you. Give us a call at (619) 444-1001, or click here to book an appointment today! We are located at 707 Arnele Avenue, El Cajon, CA 92020.
