When you have lost your teeth, we can employ dental implants to support new teeth, whether you have a single missing one, or if you need a full set of dentures. In today’s blog, your Conroe, TX, dentist goes into detail about how we use custom prosthetics and durable dental implants to address your missing teeth.
The Importance of Replacing Missing Teeth
Our smile undergoes a number of negative changes once we lose multiple natural teeth. People could have trouble eating a variety of food, and suffer from poor nutritional intake as a result. Speaking clearly could be difficult, and this could impact social interactions and overall quality of life. If natural teeth remain, these could drift from position due to the gaps and cause misalignment, which further harms your smile’s health and appearance. The body will no longer send regular doses of calcium and phosphates to the jaw around the missing roots, so these areas lose mass and density. The breakdown causes further tooth loss and a prematurely aged appearance! But by supporting a dental prosthetic with dental implants, we can prevent these issues from arising.
Dental Implants and Crowns
First, we can help address a single missing tooth with dental implants, helping to protect your smile from further loss of your teeth. We begin by inserting a dental implant post into the jaw. Made from biocompatible titanium, this acts as a new root and can stay in place for decades to come, stimulating the growth of jawbone tissue to prevent the loss of mass and density. We then connect an abutment to the post that extends above the gum line. This provides structure to attach the crown, the visible part of your new tooth. We take care to ensure the crown looks natural and matches your smile.
Dental Bridges
If you have a large gap in your smile, such as two to four missing teeth in a row, then we could recommend a dental bridge. Unlike traditional options, we don’t need to remove structure from natural teeth to support them. Instead, we insert one to two dental implants, and the crown portion of your dental bridge is attached to the post and secures the new teeth firmly in place. Since dental implants prevent the loss of mass and density in the jaw, this means your bridge can last for decades as opposed to the 10 to 15 years a traditional one does. Again, we take steps to ensure the finished product looks natural.
Partial Dentures
If you have multiple gaps in your smile, especially if they’re spread out across the arch, this could be too severed to be addressed with a dental bridge alone. Instead, we need to create and secure a partial set of dentures, which are designed to fill these gaps and offer a lifelike appearance. The prosthetic contains new teeth set in an acrylic base that mimics the appearance of gum tissue. The new teeth look natural and can handle daily bite forces. We insert multiple posts and then attach the prosthetic to them. No worry about slippage, and no need to remove the denture for cleaning and soaking either.
Full Dentures
Our team can also address total tooth loss! Our team can extract the remaining few and then take detailed digital images of the smile to design and craft your custom prosthetic. Your full dentures contain a complete row of new teeth set in an acrylic base. Instead of relying on suction or adhesives, we attach them to multiple dental implants. We could potentially use as little as four to support a complete set of dentures, and in some cases, the entire placement and restorative process only takes one visit. Your full dentures can last for decades to come and don’t need to be replaced every five years. They’re easy to clean and care for, and there is no need to remove them for soaking. You have a new smile that looks and functions like a natural one, and preserves your facial structure at the same time.
If you have any questions about how our team can use multiple dental implants to support a prosthetic, or if you need a bridge or denture to restore your missing teeth, then contact our team today to learn more. We’re ready to help you smile with confidence for years to come!
Do You Have Questions About Fixed Prosthetics?
If you want to obtain a full and beautiful smile again, then please contact The Dental Centre of Conroe in Conroe, TX by calling 936-441-4600 and schedule your next appointment with our team today.