When you have missing teeth, this could impact how you eat and even cause issues with speech. You could even risk an aged appearance! But our team can provide dental prosthetics to fill the gap in your smile. In today’s blog, your Shrewsbury, MA, dentist talks about our options for replacing missing teeth.
The Causes of Tooth Loss
What causes your smile to develop tooth loss? When you have lost teeth, this could be due to factors like untreated tooth decay or dental infection. An accident or sports injury could be a cause, as could the advanced stage of gum disease known as periodontitis. As part of your treatment, we will examine your smile to assess the underlying factors behind your tooth loss. We may recommend treatment to manage these concerns before we move forward with tooth replacement, so you avoid the risk of implant failure down the road.
How Missing Teeth Impact Your Smile
Even minor tooth loss should be treated. We know missing teeth impact the appearance of your smile and could cause you to feel self-conscious. But lost teeth also erode the health and function of your bite too. When you have missing teeth, this limits meal options and nutritional intake. You could also have trouble speaking clearly too. The body will stop sending key nutrients to the jaw around the missing roots, so the area weakens and loses density. When this happens, the risk of further tooth loss increases and you could be more susceptible to an aged appearance. But with a dental prosthetic, we can fill these gaps or replace lost teeth, and with dental implants, we can prevent changes to your jaw ridge and facial structure!
Planning Replacement
When you see us, we will take detailed digital x-rays of your smile and gather intraoral images so we can assess the cause and severity of your tooth loss. This also enables us to plan the treatment process in detail, and these images help us design custom dental prosthetics that fit comfortably and offer a natural appearance. When the time comes to prepare your smile and attach these replacement options, we will employ local anesthesia and dental sedation to ensure the entire process is a comfortable one for you!
Dental Bridges
For more minor cases of tooth loss, we could secure a dental bridge in place. The bridge contains new teeth with crowns on each end, and is made from a lifelike ceramic that we shade blend with your smile. Traditional options are connected to the abutment teeth, the ones on each side of the gap in your smile. However, we could also insert dental implants and connect your bridge to them, which saves natural tooth structure and ensures a longer-lasting bridge.
Partial Dentures
If you have multiple gaps that are spread out across the arch of your smile, then we could help with a partial set of dentures. The prosthetic contains new teeth made from lifelike ceramic and set in an acrylic base that looks like gum tissues. There are also metal clasps that connect to natural teeth to ensure the denture. These are the removable ones, but we can also support them with dental implants to preserve your jawbone and facial structure, and also ensure it lasts more than 5 to 10 years.
Full Dentures
A full denture replaces every tooth on one or both arches, and contains a complete row of custom, lifelike teeth set in an acrylic base. Suction or adhesives will keep these in place, but for a fixed option we can support them with dental implants.
Implant Dentistry
Dental implants are made from biocompatible titanium, post that we insert into the jawbone. There, they bond with the jaw and act like new tooth roots, stimulating the growth of jawbone structure to keep your smile and youthful facial features intact. We can use one to replace an individual missing tooth, or employ multiple ones to support a bridge or denture. If you have any questions about how our team will replace missing teeth with our custom prosthetics and dental implants, or if you have missing teeth that need to be replaced right away, then contact our team today to get started. You deserve a full and stunning smile, and we can help make it a reality.
Do You Have Missing Teeth?
The team at Modern Dentistry of Shrewsbury in MA wants to help you smile with a custom and long-lasting dental prosthetic. To schedule an appointment with us, call our office today at 508-842-8838.
