How Tooth Loss Really Affects Your Oral Health

One of the greatest benefits to come out of the advancement of modern dentistry is the ability for more people to preserve their healthy, natural smiles for life. That includes successfully preventing tooth loss in ways that weren’t historically possible, such as by saving teeth with highly precise and lifelike restorations. However, tooth loss does still occur, and the other great advantage of modern dental care is the ability to address it with more lifelike and successful results than ever before. With the many different ways in which tooth loss can affect your oral health, rebuilding your smile with a lifelike dental prosthesis can be essential to preserving your smile.

Putting your other teeth under increased pressure

When you lose a tooth, it doesn’t make the pressure of your bite any less intense. It does, however, disturb your remaining teeth’s ability to sustain that pressure, mainly because they’ll be exposed to more of it than usual. Your remaining teeth will have to compensate for the lack of one or more teeth and the impact that has on your bite’s overall balance and function. Fortunately, you can mitigate that impact with a custom-designed dental prosthesis, such as a dental bridge or denture.

Increasing your risks of other concerns

The impacts of tooth loss on your bite balance and your surrounding oral structures are significant, but losing one or more teeth can also leave your remaining at a higher risk of several other problems. For instance, the change in bite pressure that occurs can eventually lead to one or more teeth becoming worn down, fractured, or broken. They may also shift out of alignment and become more vulnerable to things like tooth decay development.

Diminishing the integrity of your oral structures

Replacing your lost teeth not only restores your bite’s balance and alleviates pressure on your other teeth, but also helps you preserve the oral and facial structures that are related to your bite function. For instance, when you replace a lost tooth root with a dental implant, it can stimulate your jawbone in the area where tooth root has been lost. This helps preserve the strength and integrity of your jawbone structure in that area, which lessens or stops the loss of mass and density that could follow the loss of your natural teeth roots.

Learn how to protect your smile from tooth loss

Tooth loss can affect your oral health in more ways than you might realize at first, which is why replacing lost teeth as soon as possible is essential to preserving your smile. To learn more, schedule an appointment or initial consultation by calling Advanced Dental Concepts in Auburn Hills, MI, today at (248) 852-1820.