Dental Implants Can Help You Retain Bone
If you are missing teeth, you may not want to go with dentures. While dentures will make sure that you have teeth that you can use, the problem with that is that you can end up with issues like bone loss or dentures and partials which no longer fit correctly. There are options available to you so that you can have teeth while not having to deal with problems like bone loss or ill-fitting appliances. One of those options is dental implants.
Dental Implants
A dental implant starts with a piece of metal, usually titanium, that gets implanted into the socket of your tooth. The titanium is shaped like a post and it acts like the root of your tooth. After the post has been implanted into your jaw and has healed, then you can have something placed on top of it. If you are missing just one tooth, then it can act as an anchor for a tooth. If you are going to filling the space for more than one tooth, the doctor may implant multiple posts and use those as an anchor to hold in a permanent appliance like a partial.
Bone Grafts
If you have had missing teeth for a while, you may have some bone loss. That's because the pressure that is put on your jaw when you chew helps to keep the bone strong. When you lose that tooth, there isn't anything that is keeping that particular part of your jaw strong, so your body will start to reabsorb that bone. That means that if it has been a while, you may just not have enough bone in your jaw to hold the post in. In that case, your doctor is going to give you a bone graft. Doing that will give your implants a better chance of success. If you have to get grafts, it may extend the amount of time that it will take for your implants to be installed and your mouth to heal. Your doctor is going to want to be very careful to make sure that everything gets healed correctly. The graft is going to have to meld with your existing bone before you can put a lot of pressure on it.
Getting dental implants can be one way to get your teeth back after they have been lost. You don't have to worry about bone loss if you get dental implants. For more information, contact local professionals like The Center For Oral & Facial Surgery at Anthem.