Losing a tooth can lead to serious consequences for your oral health, even if the tooth is in the back of your mouth and isn’t noticeable. The good news is that modern dental prostheses can help you regain your smile and quality of life following tooth loss. The better news is that, despite its common occurrence, tooth loss is highly preventable, and you have a better chance of preserving your natural smile the more you know about tooth loss.
True or False About Tooth Loss
1.) The biggest problem with tooth loss is your confidence, which can diminish even if the lost tooth is in the back of your mouth.
False—Diminished confidence is a serious concern with tooth loss, but it’s not the biggest. Even if your confidence can withstand a missing tooth, your oral health cannot, and remaining teeth may shift to take up the slack. As these teeth drift out of their place, your bite can increasingly lose its balance, leading to a host of oral health issues like TMJ disorder, dental disease, and possibly further tooth loss.
2.) Even with the best care, tooth loss is largely inevitable, and you can expect it to happen as you grow older.
False—You only grow one set of permanent teeth, and they’re meant to last a lifetime. Tooth loss is not natural or inevitable, though it is a widespread and continuing problem. A tooth can be lost for a number of reasons, such as accidental trauma, but the most common cause is gum disease—a bacterial infection of you gingival tissue that, when progresses, destroys your gums and jawbone that support your teeth.
3.) When you lose one or more teeth, replacing the root is as important as replacing the crown (visible part) of your tooth.
True—Your teeth’s crowns are necessary for your mouth to function, but the roots that support them are more important than mere place holders. When you bite and chew, the pressure stimulates your teeth roots, signaling your body to send your jaw the nutrients it needs to sustain and support your teeth. Missing roots can no longer place their nutrient orders through stimulation, and the nutrients are never delivered. Instead, your body sends those nutrients to another area of your body that can use them, and your jawbone can deteriorate from the deficiency. Replacing those roots with one or more dental implants can help restore this stimulation, as well as hold your replacement teeth securely in place.
