While losing one or more teeth can be unsettling, losing most or all of your teeth can be devastating. Even if you didn’t mind a small gap in your smile, chances are you’d feel differently if the gap extended to cover your entire dental ridge. Luckily, you don’t have to spend the rest of your life dealing with the loss of your chewing ability. With partial or full dentures (depending on the extent of your tooth loss), you can regain your beautiful, fully-functioning smile and the confidence that goes with it. As your Astoria dentist warns, however, traditional dentures are not flawless, and there are extenuating circumstances to severe tooth loss that they may not be able to address. Dr. Leibowitz discusses these circumstances, and the innovative dental procedure that can boost your denture’s effectiveness at restoring your oral health.
The Need for a Dental Prosthesis
The need for a complete set of teeth becomes more apparent as more teeth are lost. One of the most obvious inhibitions created by tooth loss is the reduced ability to bite and chew your food. The first, and perhaps most important, step to digestion begins when you rip, tear, crush, and grind your food into something that your esophagus can safely transport to your stomach. If you can’t adequately chew your food, you’ll have to readjust your diet, and you may not receive an ample supply of the nutrients your body needs to operate properly. By replenishing your dental ridge with a set of dental prosthetics (artificial teeth), dentures can restore this ability and help prevent health complications resulting from malnutrition.
How do Implants Preserve Oral Health?
Although not as obvious as the loss of your chewing ability, the loss of your tooth’s roots can also devastate your oral health. When healthy tooth roots are embedded into your jawbone, the stimulation from biting and chewing invites an ample supply of nutrients to support them. When roots are lost, their share of nutrients is as well, and your jawbone can slowly begin to deteriorate. In cases of severe tooth loss, this deterioration occurs at a faster rate, leading to further tooth loss (if any remain) and the shrunken-jaw appearance, known as facial collapse, that often becomes noticeable long after you’ve lost your teeth. Securing your dentures to a series of dental implants, which are shaped like teeth roots and are surgically inserted into your jawbone, can help restore root stimulation and prevent jawbone deterioration. Since your jawbone fuses to the dental implants, your dentures can rest as securely as your natural, healthy teeth once sat upon their roots.
Dentures, Implants, and More at Your Astoria Dentist’s Office
To learn more about dentures, dental implants, and other methods of tooth replacement, call us immediately to schedule a dental consultation with Dr. Leibowitz. You can contact our Astoria dentist office by calling (718) 728-8320. Located in the 11106 area, we proudly serve patients from Astoria, Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the surrounding communities.
