When kids start getting their baby teeth, or they’re transitioning to their adult teeth, their gap-toothed grins can be adorable. Unfortunately, the same can’t exactly be said of an adult who’s flashing a gap in their teeth when they smile.
While your teeth are designed to last for a lifetime, the reality is that millions of Americans are missing teeth.
In fact, about 120 million people are missing at least one tooth, and more than 36 million are missing all of their teeth. And these numbers are on the rise thanks to an aging population.
While the effect that a missing tooth can have on your smile is significant, tooth loss can lead to many more issues that threaten your overall oral health.
To learn more, we turn to Dr. Danny Jeon and our team at Tucker Family Dental. We are experts in tooth loss and restoration services, including the gold standard dental implants.
One of the side effects of tooth loss that can have the most impact on your overall dental health is bone loss.
Under normal circumstances, your jawbone is constantly rebuilding and remodeling itself — old bone gets reabsorbed, and new bone fills its place at the same rate. And this continual process occurs wherever bone is active and needs to remain strong.
When you lose a tooth, you lose the root that connects to your jawbone. When this happens, your body can sense that there’s no activity in this area, and it ceases to rebuild bone.
As a result, most people lose considerable bone in their jaws after tooth loss. In fact, one study reports that about half of the immediate bone in the jaw is lost within a year after losing a tooth, 30% of which occurs in the first three months.
When you lose bone in your jaw after losing a tooth, it can lead to instability in the neighboring teeth. In fact, one missing tooth can create a domino effect in your mouth and threaten surrounding teeth.
Another potential side effect of a missing tooth is that it can affect your bite. This misalignment in your bite can then lead to uneven wear in your other teeth.
Your jaw is a joint that features tiny hinges on each side called temporomandibular joints (TMJs). If your missing tooth creates a mismanagement in your teeth, it can lead to a painful TMJ disorder.
For your smile and the other important issues we just reviewed, we recommend restoring your missing tooth as soon as possible. We offer several different tooth replacement options, including:
Dental implants are the only option that addresses bone loss and its complications, which is why more than 3 million dental implants are placed each year in the United States.
If you want to restore your great smile and preserve your dental health for years to come, we invite you to call our office in Tucker, Georgia, at (678) 233-2945, to discuss your options. You can also book an appointment online with Tucker Family Dental today.
