Dental Treatment Options For Replacing Missing Teeth

Using Dental Appliances For Missing Teeth

If you’re missing one or more teeth, whether they are in the front or back of your mouth, you may feel less confident than you would with a full set of teeth, but don’t worry because you are not alone. In fact, there are many adults that have had a couple of decayed or missing teeth replaced.

While replacing your missing teeth for aesthetic reasons is perfectly understandable, it’s just as important, if not more, to have any missing teeth replaced for your oral health. Your teeth are meant to work together to help you chew, smile and speak. When you have missing teeth, these simple things can be difficult to do. The loss of your back teeth may cause your mouth to shift and your face to appear older or sunken in.

Options For Replacing Missing Teeth

Fortunately, with the help of modern dentistry, missing teeth can be replaced. There are options to replace front teeth as well as replace missing back teeth. The following are some of the tooth replacement options that should be available to you by your dental care professional:

Dental Implants

Many people opt for dental implants to replace a single tooth, several teeth, or to support a full set of dentures. This is mainly because they offer a durable and long-term solution for patients.

The process of getting dental implants placed typically involves three phases that take place over several weeks, or even months. The first part of the process is surgically placing the actual implant. The second part is checking to see if the implant healed properly and is securely integrated into your jawbone. During the last part of the dental implant process, the dental care professional will install the finished crown and the patient walks out of the practice with a new set of teeth.

One disadvantage of dental implants is the lengthy process. However, compared to all of the benefits patients will reap from dental implants, dental professionals and patients don’t see that as much of a problem.

Bridges

Teeth can also be replaced with a dental bridge, which is basically a dental appliance that is used to fill the space where one or more teeth have been lost. A dental bridge is typically bonded or cemented into place and it can only be removed by a dental professional.

This first part of placing a bridge involves a dentist preparing the teeth on either side of the space where the bridge will later be attached. The dentist will then take an impression of the area and send the impression to a dental laboratory where your bridge will be fabricated out of metal, ceramics, glass ceramics or a combination. Once your bridge is complete, your dentist will place the bridge over the prepared teeth and cement it into place.

Unlike dental implants that are surgically placed and securely integrated into your jawbone, bridges rely on the neighboring teeth for support. The effect dental bridges have on neighboring teeth is also something worth taking note of if you do plan on getting one to replace your missing teeth.

Dentures

Dentures are removable dental appliances that can replace a single tooth or a full set. Dentures usually have replacement teeth attached to a plastic base that matches the color of your gums and, depending on your case, are either partial dentures or full dentures.

The difference between the two are as the names suggests. Partial dentures only replace a set number of teeth, while full dentures replace a full set of teeth. Full dentures will require you to have the remaining teeth removed before they can be replaced by full set of removable artificial teeth. Like bridges, this dental appliance has some side effects worth taking note.

As you can see, you are not entirely out of luck when it comes to the many options to replace your missing teeth. It’s extremely important that you have your missing teeth replaced, because if you don’t, not only will you have an incomplete smile, but you may end up with further complications. These complications may include things such as increased risk for gum disease, jaw pain, malocclusions and so on.

If you’re interested in tooth replacement, contact Advanced Dental Group at (561) 689-0872 to schedule a consultation to see which of the three treatment options you would best benefit from. Or visit us on our site for more information on dental implant options.