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If circumstances have left you without your teeth at a relatively young age, it can be easy to feel like you’re the only one. As a result, many patients think there is a stigma against younger people getting restorative dentistry. They think only seniors have dental implants and dentures. Not true!As dental professionals, we don’t want anyone to miss out on a functional and beautiful smile, so we want to guide you past you preconceived notions about restorative dentistry.
Young people can lose their teeth for many reasons. While bad habits like smoking and poor nutrition and dental hygiene during childhood are common reasons, other reasons include accidents, genetic conditions, drug use, and side affects of eating disorders.
Many patients avoid getting help because they are ashamed of their dental condition. Whatever caused you to lose your teeth, hiding your smile from the world and always worrying what people will think is no way to live your life!
No matter what your dental history, never be afraid to ask your dentist about the restorative and reconstructive solutions that may be available to you. Most dentists became dentists in order to help people, not judge them. Give us a chance to bring you all that our training and the latest dental technology has to offer.
There are many people as young as their twenties or thirties who have bridges, partial dentures, complete dentures or implants. These patients have put aside what’s happened in the past and embraced what modern dentistry can do for them today to give them healthier, more beautiful smiles.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the longer you put off dental restoration, the more damage there might be to repair, even if all your troublesome teeth have already been removed. When you lose teeth you also lose bone in your jaw, leading to a sunken or compressed looking facial structure that can make you look much older. This bone loss continues throughout your life unless we do something about it. Traditional dentures can restore the shape of your face, while implant supported dentures & individual dental implants can also help stop bone loss.
If tooth loss is keeping you from experiencing life the way you want to, please talk to the dentist about restoring your smile. We want to show you what’s possible!
There are many ways to replace missing teeth & restore your smile, & bridges are a good permanent solution. They can replace one or more missing teeth, including molars, & cannot be removed, unlike dentures.
Bridges are called bridges because they create a “bridge” between teeth. The false tooth, called a pontic, is connected to the surrounding existing teeth or implants. The teeth or implant where the bridge is attached is called an abutment.
There are four major types of bridges:
Traditional bridges are held in place by dental crowns placed over the two existing teeth on either side of the gap. That means that for this type of bridge, there must be natural teeth on both sides of the gap. Your dentist will file down the existing teeth to place a crown over them so that the bridge can be attached to these new crowns.
In cantilever bridges, the pontic is only supported by one crown, instead of two. These are not as popular because sometimes the bridge can act as a lever & can have complications, like fractured teeth or loosened crowns.
In Maryland bridges, the pontic is held in place by a metal or porcelain framework that is bonded to the back of the surrounding teeth, kind of like little wings. This type of bridge is nice because your surrounding teeth don’t need to be filed down.
These bridges are useful when more than one tooth is missing. An implant is placed for every missing tooth, & a bridge is attached to the new implants. If an implant can’t be placed for every tooth, then a pontic can be suspended between two surrounding implant crowns instead. These bridges take a bit longer, since implants can take up to five months to place.
Bridges are a long-lasting way to restore your smile & prevent other dental health problems, like bad bites, gum disease & TMJ disorders. Bridges can last up to 10 years with proper care, so practice good oral hygiene to keep your teeth & gum free of decay, & avoid eating hard foods & ice. Keep your bridges clean with proxy brushes, floss threaders & antibacterial mouthwash, & by flossing underneath the false tooth.
Talk to your dentist to find out if dental bridges are right for your smile!
The goal of modern dentistry is for each & every patient to keep all their teeth for their entire lifetime. As dental health awareness & dental technology have advanced over the last half century, we now see fewer older people who are missing all their teeth (a condition dentists call edentulism). Still, we find that people may loose a tooth or a few & not think much of it. The reality is that a missing tooth is far more than just a gap in your smile: it can have serious oral health & psychological effects down the line.
Bones are similar to muscles in that if you don’t stimulate them, they will start to atrophy. The bones in your jaws are stimulated when the force of biting & chewing travels down the root of your teeth into the bone. When you lose even a single tooth, the bone under where the tooth used to be starts to weaken & decrease in density. If you are missing all the teeth on your upper or lower jaw, this effect is even more pronounced, & can lead to the face having a sunken & shortened appearance that makes a person look much older.
Patients who have lost teeth also experience negative effects on their health & quality of life. Missing teeth can make it hard for people to eat healthy foods that might be difficult to chew, such as nuts, vegetables & meats. As a result, many patients with missing teeth also suffer from poor nutrition. Missing teeth can also have social consequences, as patients who are self conscious about their appearance or eating ability may avoid social activities that they once enjoyed.
If you are missing teeth it’s very important that you look into your options for tooth replacement as soon as possible. The longer you wait to replace a tooth, the worse your problems with bone loss & other consequences will be.
Dental implants are by far the best option for replacing teeth. A major reason for this is they replace both the tooth root & the crown. The fact that the replacement tooth is imbedded in the bone helps prevent further bone loss. The implant is an artificial tooth root that is anchored in the bone. The crown is a porcelain or ceramic tooth that is then attached to the metal implant using dental cement. Essentially, the only drawback to dental implants is the healing time, which can be as long as three months. But the result is permanent teeth that will last the rest of your life & be as functional as if you never lost your natural teeth. Plus, unlike other tooth restoration options, implants don’t ever have to be replaced or adjusted, so you only have to pay for them once.
Bridges are replacement teeth that are held in place by attaching to neighboring healthy teeth. While traditionally bridges have been made from gold, ceramic, or alloys, today the preferred kind of bridge is made entirely of ceramic. This provides the most natural-looking result. A ceramic bridge consists of a false tooth with hollow tooth crowns on either side. These hollow crowns are then cemented to nearby healthy teeth that have been reshaped & the false tooth in the middle fills the gap left by your missing tooth.
Bridges can help prevent bone loss in your jaw & also keep your remaining teeth from shifting into the gap, which can misalign your bite, make chewing difficult & even affect your appearance. While bridges are durable & long-lasting, most of the time they do need to be replaced eventually. Bridges are also a less desirable option than implants because they involve taking structure away from healthy teeth in order to attach the bridge, so the loss of one tooth ends up affecting several teeth.
Dentures are dental appliance that replace an entire arch of teeth (i.e. all the teeth on your upper jaw or lower jaw). Dentures consist of a plate that holds false teeth & gums that are held in place by fitting over your gums & the power of suction. Dentures are usually made of a durable resin material that is colored to look like your own natural teeth. Partials are used for patients who are missing a few, but not all, of the teeth in an arch. They consist of a plate that fits against the roof of the mouth, false teeth, & clips that attach to existing teeth to hold the partial in place.
While dentures & partials will restore the appearance of your smile & some of its function, they do not help prevent bone loss due to missing teeth. Even if you wear dentures the bones of your jaw will continue to diminish & change shape. As a result, you may need to have your dentures adjusted or replaced, as the original bone structure they were designed for will have changed. This is why, despite having a lower upfront cost, dentures can end up costing more than dental implants in the long run.
If you are missing teeth or know you are at risk of losing teeth, please don’t hesitate to talk to us about your options.
