Tooth loss can have a major impact on your quality of life. The tooth replacement you choose has a lasting effect on your gums, your jawbone, and on everything you do with your mouth from that point forward. Although any tooth replacement is better for your health and confidence than none, there is a distinct difference between the available options. While dentures restore a reasonable amount of function, only dental implants offer benefits similar to your natural teeth.
Stability
One of the chief drawbacks of dentures is that they can shift as you’re using them, causing feelings of instability and the worry that the dentures might fall out. Adhesives help, but can wear off too quickly, and the need to apply them and clean them off adds time and bother to your daily routine. Even partial dentures and bridges have similar problems, wobbling and shifting while in use.
Dental implants, on the other hand, are fixed permanently in place. They don’t shift, let alone fall out, and take the same amount of time to maintain as normal teeth.
Health
Once you begin to lose teeth, the rest of your mouth deteriorates from lack of use. Your gums recede, your jawbone weakens, and other teeth will drift from their positions. Dentures do nothing to help and can even accelerate the process by placing unaccustomed pressure on your jawbone. The only tooth replacements which actively work to keep your bone and gums healthy are dental implants. The post of an implant replaces your tooth roots, encouraging the bone and gums to grow against it instead of receding.
Aesthetics
While we attempt to make every dental prosthetic as realistic as possible, there are limits to what we can accomplish. Dentures will always be a separate appliance in your mouth, which may become visible or even fall out. Partial dentures have to be fastened in place, and those fastenings are often visible.
Individual dental implants are the most realistic, least obtrusive dental prosthetic available. Because they are implanted in your jaw with the fixtures covered by your gums, they look virtually identical to your natural teeth, allowing you to smile with confidence.
Implant-Secured Dentures
Even if you decide that dentures are the option that makes the most sense for you, you can still reap some of the benefits of dental implants. Using just a few implants to fasten your dentures will increase their stability immensely and eliminate the risk of dentures falling out. It will also benefit your jaw and gums—perhaps not as much as individual implants, but enough to make a difference.
Whether you have recently lost teeth or have been wearing dentures for years, dental implants can restore your mouth and change your life. Contact the Silberg Center for Dental Science today to find out whether you qualify for dental implants.
