Missing at least one tooth can impact your smile’s appearance and function. Also, it can result in jawbone loss. It can change how you look, shift the rest of your teeth, and lead to further tooth loss. Thankfully, dental implants can replace missing teeth and prevent jawbone loss.
Dental implants are titanium posts that an expert in Kokomo family dentistry can surgically insert into your jaw to serve as artificial roots. Once implanted into your jaw, the implants fuse with the bone for stability.
Dental Implants and Jawbone Loss
After a tooth extraction or loss, the underlying jawbone starts to deteriorate because of a lack of stimulation. Such a process is called bone resorption, which can result in jawbone shrinking and weakening. Dental bridges and dentures were used to be the go-to option to address missing teeth. But while they can restore the look and functionality of your missing teeth, they don’t address the bone loss issue. This is where implants can help.
Dental implants are made of titanium, which lets them fuse with the bone that surrounds the missing teeth through the osseointegration process. Such integration offers a solid foundation for implant-supported crowns, dentures, or bridges. Osseointegration is the key to the ability of the implants to prevent jawbone loss. Once the implants integrate with your jawbone, they stimulate the surrounding tissues, signaling your body to supply nutrients to the jawbone continuously. In turn, this promotes bone growth and prevents resorption. Overall, dental implants mimic the natural tooth root system that maintains the jawbone’s density and integrity.
Dental implants provide other benefits over dentures or bridges. They do not need support from neighboring teeth. Moreover, they offer a more natural chewing and biting experience, improving your overall oral function.
Keep in mind that timely intervention is necessary to prevent considerable jawbone loss. Once you lose a tooth, getting implants can help preserve the structure of your jawbone and prevent further complications. If you have lost a significant amount of jawbone, bone grafting, and other techniques can be utilized to rebuild and strengthen your jawbone before placing an implant.
Reasons Resorption Happens After Tooth Loss
As with other bones and tissue in the body, the jawbone requires stimulation to remain strong and healthy. This bone will deteriorate if no muscle is used. The roots of healthy teeth transmit the biting and chewing force into the jawbone, stimulating it and keeping it healthy.
However, when you lose a tooth, you also lose the root of this tooth. Thus, the force and pressure of daily activities can no longer be transmitted into the jawbone. As a result, resorption occurs. Thus, the bone in your jaw will weaken and deteriorate slowly. Without an implant, it takes just one year to lose up to 25 percent of the jawbone mass.
The Risks of Bone Loss
Sometimes, a missing tooth is an early indication of bone density loss. Your bones’ strength determines the potential fragility and brittleness of your teeth over time. The loss of bone density can happen for various reasons, but if a missing tooth is not replaced, the issue will only get worse. The bone that does not have a tooth will start to shrink. This will change how you look and reduce the strength of your remaining teeth. Eventually, the teeth will become brittle. Over time, this will cause further tooth deterioration and loss, which further reduces bone density. This is a repetitive process that continues until all your teeth have fallen out and jaw erosion occurs, making it hard to chew or talk.
The space left by a missing tooth should be replaced as quickly as possible to avoid this risky cycle. Leaving a missing tooth unreplaced for a long time will increase bone density loss. As a result, reinforcing the jawbone with implants becomes hard.
