Struggling with missing teeth or failing teeth can damage your oral health and kill your confidence. There are many dentists in the country who claim to be able to resolve your dental issues and to restore your lost teeth.
There are also a ton of restoration options out there. If you have missing teeth or someone does who you know — you’ve probably heard about dental implants.
Dental implants are the newest way to restore missing teeth. These implants are made of titanium and naturally fuse to your jawbone. We work with an oral surgeon who places dental implants. Once your implants have healed to the bone, they can also be restored with crowns, bridges, or full arches of dentures.
Now, if you’re like me, you like to know what you’re investing in. Dental implants are a big investment into your oral health, and expensive. So, today I want to look at how dental implants measure up against other restorative dental options.
Bridges Vs. Dental Implants
A single missing tooth is enough to ruin a good smile. It’s distracting and can disrupt the alignment of your remaining teeth. That’s why we encourage patients to replace a missing tooth once it’s lost. The dental bridge has been a great option for many years. It’s affordable, strong and long-lasting. A bridge is made of a series of dental crowns — with the center crown replacing the missing tooth. But to place a bridge, we must file down the adjacent teeth. Those are the ones that will support the bridge. This is considered a somewhat invasive procedure considering the amount of tooth structure we need to remove.
Dental implants, on the other hand, focus only on the missing tooth. Your healthy teeth will be left untouched! The implant is restored with a crown just as if it was a crown with a cavity too large for a filling.
Removable Dentures Vs. Dental Implants
Removable dentures have been used in dentistry for hundreds of years. We’ve of course updated the materials to make the restoration more functional and lifelike than ever. But ultimately, removable dentures are not fixed to the bone. This makes it possible for the appliance to slide around or slide while you try to chew your food.
Because the appliance is not fixed to the bone, the jawbone can recede. When you lose the teeth, the jawbone and gums begin to recede. This gives you that sunken in look, as you’ll lose the vertical dimension between your chin and nose. This is where dental implants can help. Implants prevent the bone from receding while giving you permanent, fixed teeth that will not slide around while you’re trying to eat.
Since we’re comparing the two services, I’ll also provide some math. The biting force of natural teeth is about 30 to 40 pounds per square inch, while dentures is just 15 pounds per square inch. With the reduction in biting force of dentures, it’s next to impossible to eat the foods you love. This ties in directly to nutrition, too.
Researchers have found that patients without teeth — or removable dentures — can have a shorter life expectancy because they cannot get the nutrition they need. Dental implants nearly mimic the biting force of natural teeth. All those food you avoided with dentures are back on the menu.
With dental implants, gone are the days of worrying about your teeth flying out of your mouth. You don’t have to worry about your denture slipping while you eat, and you don’t have to limit your diet. If you’ve been a long-time denture sufferer or have failing teeth, you owe it to yourself to consider permanent solutions that meet your lifestyle. Call our office today at 248-972-8720 to schedule a consultation to discuss dental implants and dental implants restorations.
