Tooth loss has become less prominent as dental health care has advanced, but it still remains a significant problem for a large number of people. Fortunately, replacing lost teeth has become just as effective and convenient as taking care of your smile, especially with the help of highly lifelike dental implants. At our Lafayette, LA, dental office, we often recommend dental implants to help patients rebuild and preserve their healthy, beautiful smiles following tooth loss. As the root-like devices provide the most realistic way to support your replacement teeth, they offer several advantages for your smile that other, more conventional prosthetic options can’t offer.
Mimicking healthy, natural teeth
Most modern dental crowns, bridges, and dentures are designed to closely mimic the appearance of your lost teeth. Often made from highly customizable porcelain, which can be tinted to match any tooth’s unique color, shade, and appearance, However, they lack the roots that support your healthy, natural teeth, relying instead on hidden clasps, adhesives, and/or nearby healthy teeth for support. By contrast, a dental implant-supported prosthesis more closely mimics the entire structures of your natural teeth, including their roots, to give your replacement teeth a much more lifelike feel. The addition of implants also stabilizes your prosthesis more securely, ensuring it doesn’t shift or move as you bite and chew.
Providing a vital benefit to your jawbone
Supporting your replacement teeth is important, but one of the more profound benefits that dental implants provide is the preservation of your jawbone and oral health. For example, after you lose one or more teeth, the absence of their roots can result in diminished stimulation in your jawbone. As a result, it receives fewer nutrients, and can shrink as it loses mass and density over the years. Dental implant posts help stop this degradation by reestablishing stimulation every time you bite and chew. Restored stimulation means the restoration of your jawbone’s nutrient supply, which is vital to its long-term health and integrity.
Maintaining your healthy smile easier
When your replacement teeth are anchored in place with realistic dental implants, they don’t need things like clasps or adhesives. This means you don’t have any extra apparatus to clean around when you brush and floss your teeth every day, which makes keeping your smile healthy easier and more effective. However, maintaining your good oral health still requires consistently good hygiene every day, as well as routine visits to your dentist for professional checkups and cleanings.
Learn if you can benefit from dental implants
Given the many advantages that dental implants provide in restoring your smile, they’re often the best choice for patients who’ve lost any number of teeth. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, call the office of Michael J. Young, DDS, in Lafayette, LA, at 337-237-6453. We proudly serve patients who live in Breaux Bridge, Broussard, Scott, Youngsville, and all surrounding communities.