While a missing tooth may have some level of endearment in a Hee Haw-esque (for you older readers) way, you really shouldn’t leave that missing tooth, uh, missing.
Why? It’s just a tooth. The gap isn’t as wide as the Lincoln Tunnel or anything, right?
True, but it’s the gap that is the problem. Like people on the bleachers at a packed football game when one person leaves, your teeth tend to slide over and fill the open space. While this isn’t a problem at a football game (until the person returns and you’re crowded again), it is a problem with your teeth because those moving teeth mess up your bite and your overall tooth alignment.
Plus, there’s another dirty little secret about missing teeth. When you bite and chew a good deal of energy is involved. Your teeth take that force energy and transfer it downward into the jawbone below the tooth. That energy is responsible for keeping the jawbone healthy, as it triggers the jawbone to keep regenerating to stay healthy. If you have a missing tooth or teeth, the jawbone under those teeth doesn’t receive that stimulation and begins to lose jawbone mass.
Replace that tooth
At Gentle Dental, we believe dental implants are far and away the best solution for replacing missing teeth. A dental implant is basically a titanium screw that we insert into the jawbone in the root hole left from your missing tooth. Over a period of a few weeks, the jawbone naturally accepts that titanium implant, growing around it in a process known as osseointegration. After this process is complete, and the implant is anchored like the piers of the Brooklyn Bridge, we attach a post to the implant, and then place an artificial tooth on top of that.
Just like your natural tooth
Once placed, an implant functions just like your original tooth. You can eat whatever you want, and caring for it is identical to your natural teeth.
You don’t want to be a gap-toothed individual. Call us at Gentle Dental and let’s talk about placing an implant to fill that gap. (732) 549-5660.
