Missing teeth are a major inconvenience, especially around the holidays when family and friends are sharing special treats. Besides making it difficult to enjoy your favorite foods, missing teeth can permanently damage your other teeth and impact other aspects of your health. To protect your health, you should get any missing teeth replaced as soon as possible.
Dr. Bebeau, Arizona’s leading oral surgeon at Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of Phoenix, offers a variety of missing teeth solutions so you can get back to enjoying life without tooth and jaw pain. Dr. Bebeau specializes in providing dental implants, including All-on-4 implants. Read on to learn more about common problems that can occur with missing teeth, and how implants can help.
Common Missing Teeth Problems
Jaw Pain
When you are missing teeth, your jaw doesn’t get the support it needs. When this happens, you are more likely to have a misaligned jaw, which can cause pain. One of the most common problems associated with jaw pain is temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. If this condition develops, you could experience ringing in your ears, pain when opening and closing your mouth, and overall jaw discomfort.
Low Self-Esteem
Missing teeth not only affect your dental health—they also can affect your mental health by lowering your self-esteem. We live in a society where we are constantly surrounded by actors and actresses with perfect teeth so the pressure to have good teeth is very high which can cause people to feel less confident. While this is an unfortunate fact, if watching a movie motivates you to get a dental implant so you avoid further dental problems, it wouldn’t be the worst motive. But fortunately with dental implants, you’ll be able to smile again which in turn will help you regain your confidence.
Gum disease
The absence of teeth automatically makes you more susceptible to gum disease. Missing teeth leave your gums exposed, giving bacteria easy access. If food gets stuck in your gums it could create an infection and lead to further tooth loss. Gum disease can cause a lot of pain, and even cause other types of infections in your body when bacteria in your mouth enter your bloodstream.
Jaw Bone Deterioration
The deterioration of the jaw bones is much more serious than jaw pain. If you wait too long to replace your missing teeth, jaw pain could progress to permanent bone deterioration. When you chew, signals are sent to your jaw and cells called osteoblasts work to keep the jaw bone strong. However, when you are missing a tooth, there are no longer any signals going to your jaw. The bone will begin to deteriorate, which could cause further tooth loss and make your face appear to sink in, so that you look older than you are.
Missing Teeth Solutions in Phoenix
Despite all the problems that can occur from missing teeth, you don’t have to worry. Dr. Bebeau can help you find the right replacement option. His specialty, All-on-4 implants is a revolutionized option to traditional dentures. An All-On-4 procedure is usually best for patients who are experiencing widespread tooth loss and decay.
Dr. Bebeau also performs regular dental implants for patients that need just one or two tooth replacements. Dental implants are a permanent way to replace a missing tooth, and look and feel just like natural teeth. With dental implants, you can get back to talking, eating and all the normal activities of daily life, pain free.
If you’re in Phoenix or Scottsdale area and you’re looking for a dentist to help you with a missing tooth (or teeth) contact us and we’ll decide together which implant procedure is best for you so you can get back to a pain-free smile. If you’d like to learn more, click here to read reviews from Dr. Bebeau’s patients.
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