How Dental Implants Can Optimize Your Health
Losing teeth does more than ruin your smile. Tooth loss takes a toll on your oral and general health. Here’s how dental implants can improve your smile as well as your health.
If you have one or more missing teeth, you may have mulled over the different ways to fill those gaps. You could go with traditional bridges, crowns, or dentures — which certainly can do the trick — but those options aren’t always the best choice.
If you’re looking for the longest-lasting, most structurally sound option for dental restoration, you should consider dental implants. Right off the bat, some reasons to consider dental implants is that they don’t affect the other teeth, and they protect your jawbone, two things other tooth replacement procedure can’t boast.
Keep reading to learn why here at Scott Young, DDS, our dentists recommend dental implants as the top choice for missing teeth.
Getting dental implants involves a multi-step procedure that eventually mimics your natural tooth structure. Dr. Young inserts a small titanium rod into your jawbone, which acts as the root of that tooth. After adequate healing time, Dr. Young tops off the titanium root with an artificial tooth that looks just like your natural teeth. Once the dental implant procedure is completed, no one can tell the difference between your implant and a real tooth because an implant looks, feels, and acts just like a real tooth.
Because of their structural soundness and protective nature, among other benefits, Dr. Young usually recommends dental implants as the best choice for missing teeth. Here are five specific reasons why.
Once you complete the dental implant process and recover, you’d hardly know that your new tooth isn’t real — and we’re confident that no one else would ever guess. That’s because dental implants mimic the shape, structure, color, and function of your natural teeth.
Assuming you don’t get into any accidents that harm your dental implants, they can last for the rest of your life if you take good care of them. That means brushing and flossing as you would for natural teeth, as well as not grinding them or chewing on hard objects like ice or pen caps.
We’ve mentioned this already, but we’ll say it again because it’s important: Dental implants are the most structurally sound of all tooth replacement options, largely because they actually attach to your jawbone.
Because dental implants are placed into your jawbone, they can stop any further bone loss and actually spur new bone growth to keep your jawbone tissue healthy.
Unlike crowns and bridges, dental implants don’t require supportive help from the teeth around them. This means your natural teeth are left unaffected and you have fewer foreign structures to worry about.
If you’re convinced that dental implants are the best choice for missing teeth, you may now be wondering how this process actually works. The dental implant procedure may seem complex, but don’t worry: With Dr. Young, you can rest assured you’ll get all the guidance you need.
You can expect the following steps to get your shiny new teeth:
To learn more about dental implants and why they’re a top choice for missing teeth, call our office in The Woodlands, Texas, at 832-610-3123 or request an appointment online. At your consultation, Dr. Young briefs you on the dental implant process and helps you decide if it’s right for you.
