Dental Implants Improve Your Smile — and Your Overall Health
For many, dental implants provide an excellent way to restore their smile after losing a tooth. As an artificial tooth root, implants provide the strong foundation needed for tooth replacement and may be just the option you’re looking for.
The Many Benefits of Dental Implants
Dental implants do a lot more than just allow a beautiful smile: They improve your oral health — even your overall health — as well. Here’s how.
Restoring Your Ability to Chew
Dental implants function like normal teeth. When you’re able to chew foods properly, you can give your body the nutrients it needs through a healthy diet. Chewing fully and with normal force also helps digestion since you can break down food into smaller pieces.
Preventing Gum Disease and Tooth Decay
Implants are made of titanium so they aren’t susceptible to harm from bacteria, but your natural teeth can decay over time. Since food and bacteria tend to stick around in open places in your mouth, dentures and dental implants can offer protection to your surrounding natural teeth. By closing gaps, harmful bacteria are less likely to grow and cause gum disease or tooth decay down the road.
Offering Comfort and Convenience
Dental implants are surgically placed into your jaw. They offer a permanent, low maintenance solution. Unlike traditional dentures, they don’t shift in place or require any special care.
Protecting You Against Bone Loss
Your jawbone requires the pressure from normal chewing to stay healthy. When you’re missing a tooth and it doesn’t get replaced right away, you run a number of risks. The bone’s lack of stimulation can cause your jawbone to break down and your facial structure to change.
This bone loss can affect the immediate area as well as neighboring teeth. And waiting too long can impact your ability to get dental implants, since they rely on healthy bone for stability. Bottom line: Don’t wait too long before talking with your dentist about tooth replacement.
Keeping Your Natural Teeth in Place
When you’re missing a tooth, over time your other teeth move toward the empty space. And if, for example, a bottom tooth is missing, it can cause the top tooth to move as well. This changes your bite alignment, which is needed for chewing food. Dental implants prevent this drift and preserve your natural bite.
Improving Your Smile — And Your Speech
Dental implants are made to match your natural tooth color and shape, but they do more than just improve your smile in selfies. When you’re missing teeth, the way you pronounce words may not be as clear as it could be. Proper support from dental implants can actually improve your speech — and thus your confidence in day-to-day interactions with others.
Enhancing Your Quality of Life
A healthy mouth leads to a healthy body. According to the American Dental Association, diseases of the mouth and the body share a lot of common risk factors, including smoking and poor diet. And poor oral health has been linked to a number of other health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. In addition, feeling confident in your smile, speech and eating habits can improve your overall well-being.
Let Us Help You Get on the Path to Improved Health
To ensure the best outcome, be sure to select an experienced dental implant dentist. The expert team at Southern Pointe Dental and Implants in Tulsa offers different types of implants, including full mouth dental implants. Our periodontists focus on your unique needs and preferences. We offer dental implants for seniors, as well as adults of any age.
To learn more about implants, or just for a little dental advice, call us today.
