DentistryHow to Replace Your Missing Teeth

As humans, we come with lots of handy body parts to make everyday life easier. Among them is our teeth, which we use to consume food. However, our teeth are for more than just breaking down food into digestible pieces. They also are part of our facial makeup and smile.

If we lose a tooth, it can affect our appearance. A missing tooth can have a huge impact on your self-confidence and interrupt your chewing and eating. Plus, it might bring on several oral health problems, including gum disease or misalignment of our other teeth.

Having missing teeth is something that you want to fix as soon as you can. Fortunately, there are several options. These methods do cost money and time, but they are worthwhile if you prioritize your smile. Visit your dentist so they can go over all your options and pick the one that works for you based on aesthetics and cost. When you are done, you will have a full set of teeth again and no one will know the difference.

Let’s check out how to replace your missing teeth.

Dental Implants

Dental implants are one of the more common ways to replace a missing tooth. Once in place, they look and feel like a real tooth and are a permanent solution for most missing teeth. Dental implants are well worth it because it is a lifelong repair.

It is a big procedure, requiring multiple visits to your dentist and involves drilling screws into your gums in place of the roots. This is the anchor for the false tooth. Once the screws are installed, you need to wait a few months for healing to take place as it fuses to the jawbone. Then, a crown is placed on the top and you are all set.

Partial Dentures

Getting a partial denture is a fairly easy process. It doesn’t require any oral surgery. It is a removable oral plate with an acrylic base that sits in your mouth and holds one or more artificial teeth in position beside your existing teeth.

Partial dentures will have a metal clasp to hold onto your other teeth to stay in place. However, it can easily come out for cleaning. If you end up losing another tooth in the area, an additional artificial tooth may be added to the denture apparatus.

It is less expensive than other options but may be uncomfortable for some people. There is also a flipper tooth that is cheaper but not a permanent solution. It’s lightweight and can be fitted quickly so your smile is restored. Use this option while you are waiting for your denture, implant or bridge.

Complete Dentures

These dentures are a prosthetic device for when you have multiple missing teeth and need to replace a full arch. It restores your smile and allows you to chew and eat comfortably while supporting any sagging facial muscles that could be the result of multiple missing teeth.

Your dentist will try to keep any existing teeth but may have to remove some to allow for the dentures to sit in place. There will be several dental visits for teeth extraction and fitting. Once done, you’re good to go. You will have to take them out at night as they are not designed to stay in 24/7.

There are permanent dentures that use implants as well. It is a major undertaking, requiring many months of procedures and healing time before the dentures are permanently affixed.

Bridge

A bridge is another way to fill in a missing tooth by bridging across the gap. For a tooth-supported bridge, a crown is placed on the teeth, either side of the gap and the bridge is cemented in place. It takes several trips to the dentist for this procedure, but in the end, you don’t have to remove the false tooth to clean. It basically floats above the gum and will require a special floss tool to clean underneath.

If you have several missing teeth, you can get an implant-supported bridge. This will require an implant on either end of the missing row to support the multiple bridges. It is more economical to have a bridge across the gap as opposed to putting in implants for every missing tooth.

Resin-Bonded Bridge

This type of bridge is typically for front teeth as they are not used for chewing. It is fairly fragile but works well for front teeth. There are two wings attached to the artificial tooth to connect to the back surface of the abutment teeth on either side.

They can either be resin bonded or have the wings drilled in place as with a Rochette bridge. This isn’t as strong as a fixed bridge or implant but is much better than a removable denture.

This post has been sponsored by TriNorth Media