Losing a tooth can have many negative consequences for your entire mouth. The most obvious one is that a missing tooth in a visible location wrecks the looks of your smile, but this is just the start. Teeth adjacent to a missing one can start to move towards the hole. This destroys the way your teeth mesh together when you chew, which causes those teeth to be overly stressed and more likely to fail. It also makes your smile look worse over time.
Needless to say, dentists will be very firm on the fact that the gap caused by a missing tooth needs to be filled with something. In the olden days, a dental bridge usually provided that filler in the form of an artificial tooth crown. While that method is still used, it is no longer the best solution. That’s because while a bridge fills the visible part of the gap, it does nothing for the part under the gumline. Therefore, the jaw bone will still deteriorate, and this will undermine the foundations of the teeth on either side.
Dental implants in La Grange, KY eliminate all of the problems associated with missing teeth and prevent those that come from non-implanted solutions. Medically, the implanted part is one of the most important aspects. A post is surgically installed into the jaw, where it serves as an artificial tooth root. Once healed, this root helps the jaw in the same way as a real one: By transmitting chewing forces down into the bone, it stimulates the jaw to keep that bone strong and healthy.
The restoration of chewing ability is accomplished by the crown that will be installed on top of the implant post. This crown looks exactly like the real thing, but it works even better. Typically, crowns are made of porcelain over metal. You won’t have to worry about cracking it on a nut or a piece of unpopped popcorn!
Since dental implants in La Grange, KY fulfill the functions of both the crown of the tooth and its root, they are true replacements for missing teeth. They’re the best solution from a medical, functional, and cosmetic standpoint. If you want to know more about how they’re implanted and how they work.
