Dental implants have given countless patients their smiles back after severe tooth loss, and they deliver a range of amazing benefits that traditional bridges and dentures cannot match. However, you may not be aware of how these astounding restorations can help a person stay healthy. Here’s a brief guide to how extensive tooth loss may shorten your lifespan and how dental implants may allow patients to live longer.
How Can Tooth Loss Shorten My Lifespan?
While no direct link has been proven, tooth loss may reduce a person’s life expectancy. The teeth serve many functions during communication and the digestive process, and losing even one can set a person up for a host of oral health issues that can have serious overall health consequences. Tooth loss can make chewing harder, which can lead to digestive issues like indigestion and malnutrition, and it also leaves people more vulnerable to oral infections that may increase their risks of cardiovascular events and diabetes.
How Can Dental Implants Bolster My Overall Health?
Dental implants are the best way to replace lost teeth because they work, look, and feel just like the real thing. Because these devices are held securely within the jawbone, they can exert almost all the same chewing power as natural teeth, which allows the patient to enjoy all sorts of healthy foods like juicy steaks, crunchy seeds and nuts, and snappy raw fruits and veggies.
Tooth loss can also take a heavy toll on a person’s confidence and self-esteem. This can make a person less willing to engage socially or even smile at friends and family, which can set them up for loneliness and depression. Dental implants can replace lost teeth with beautifully lifelike restorations that are indistinguishable from natural teeth, so they can make it much easier to make friends and enjoy gatherings.
How Do Dental Implants Work?
A good dental implant candidate will be free from oral infections and have jawbones strong enough to support the restorations, so you may need to receive periodontal therapy or bone grafts before they can be placed. Once you are cleared for the treatment, you will be scheduled for a minor surgical procedure that will be rendered painless by anesthetics and possibly sedation. After your dentist places your implant in your jawbone, you will need a few months for them to fuse together through the natural process of osseointegration.
Once your implant has successfully fused with your jawbone, you will be scheduled to receive an abutment piece and a customized restoration that will serve as your missing tooth or teeth. The whole process takes several months, and it can give you a smile that keeps you healthy and makes you eager to show it off.
About the Practice
Metro Park Dental Arts offers the most excellent oral health services in Rogers. With Drs. Jeffery Erickson, Robert Mercer, and Jason Thibodeaux at the helm, the staff treats each patient with courtesy, respect, and outstanding customer service. Areas of expertise include general, restorative, cosmetic, and emergency dentistry in addition to dental implants and periodontal treatments. To book your implant consultation, contact the office online or dial (479) 845-1191.