You may lose a tooth due to decay, trauma, or other gum diseases. Sometimes, a dentist may remove your tooth to offset the pain.
Many people prefer leaving the missing tooth socket empty and a few opt for replacement. Replacement for a missing tooth can prevent you from several medical conditions. We will share the most common 4 reasons to replace a missing tooth and the importance of replacing a tooth.
1. Missing teeth – impact on Overall Health
A missing tooth can affect your chewing ability. It will not only make you miss out on your favorite food but it can lead to overall health complications.
Lesser chewing ability may lead to you a variety of deficiency for not consuming the food properly. You can have some impact on mental health due to loss of confidence by hiding your smile.
There’s another major issue you cannot avoid. The muscles which help you chew and rotate your jaws are called Temporomandibular joints or TMJ. They act as a sliding hinge, connecting your skull with the jawbone line. Any change in these muscles can cause great physical pain.
Tooth loss is one such reason for TMJ pain. A tooth replacement solves the problem to get comfort.
2. Prevent Bone Loss
Once a tooth is lost, your jawbone effectively doesn’t stimulate the way it should. This often leads your body for absorbing bone tissues from jaw-bones, it’s a health hazard. This is resorption and comes into action six months after you lose a tooth.
Remember, bone loss can change your face shape. They are several methods for replacing missing teeth but the best so far is a dental implant which can prevent bone loss.
3. Prevent Overgrowth or shifting
The gap left over by the missing tooth can trigger the neighboring teeth to either shift or overgrow to fill the gap. This is a natural tendency in your teeth.
Shifting or overgrowth can also happen in the opposing teeth. Like, if you have lost a tooth on the bottom arch, the tooth directly above it can start growing down to fill the gap. It happens as there’s no opposing tooth to keep their shapes.
4. Prevent Gum Disease
You should know that falling or missing teeth will leave some area that may be hard to brush or floss. Shifting teeth can also give rise to smell due inaccessible areas in your mouth.
This can become more adverse when plaque starts accumulating without any detection. All these shortcomings due to missing teeth can raise the risk for gum diseases. Treatment for gums may be more costly than replacing a tooth. You can always opt for dental implants, dentures, crowns or bridges to avoid gum diseases.
Conclusion
Dental technology has made great strides to overcome various conditions. If you have a missing tooth, consult your dentist immediately. You can discuss the method that will suit you best.