6 Reasons Why It’s Important To Restore Missing Teeth

Most people consider missing teeth to be not more than a cosmetic problem. However, missing teeth can put your overall dental health at risk, and can negatively affect your lifestyle in different ways and living with a gapped smile due to injury or tooth decay may even make you feel anxious.

Continue reading to learn six reasons why it’s important to replace your missing teeth.

1. Improve your self-confidence
Most likely missing teeth are making you feel anxious about smiling. Perhaps lost teeth are negatively affecting the quality of your life in other ways as well. A gap in your teeth can create difficulties with eating, speaking clearly, and even kissing the person you love. Replacing the missing teeth is a perfect way to fix all these problems.

2. Prevent tooth extrusion
The teeth in your upper and lower jaw are supposed to be in contact with each other. When you lack a tooth, the tooth directly above or below it loses this contact. This contact is essential to prevent the extrusion of the tooth, which means that your tooth can become loose and can start to come out of its socket. Tooth extrusion can lead to intense pain and serious dental conditions like tooth decay.

3. Prevent bone deterioration
Replacing the missing tooth is essential to prevent your jawbone from losing its volume. Your jawbone needs to be stimulated by the tooth root to remain strong and potent. Without appropriate stimulation, your jawbone will eventually start to wear out in the place of a gap, leading to changes in your facial features. Your lower part of the face will start to fall inwards making you look older. If you’re missing a few of your teeth, installing multiple dental implants is a perfect way to prevent jawbone deterioration. Dental implants can substitute the roots of your missing teeth, and support proper growth of your jawbone.

4. Prevent shifting teeth
Having a missing tooth can lead to changes in the distribution of pressure between your remaining teeth when eating. The neighboring teeth can start to change positions, most likely even shift to close the gap. This can result in crowding and other problems with your bite.

5. Prevent risk of gum disease
Missing teeth can leave gaps in your mouth leading to pain and discomfort when brushing and flossing. Shifting teeth can also create small, inaccessible areas in your mouth that may be hard to clean. And it's very common for plaque to build up unnoticed in these small hard-to-reach areas, putting you at risk of gum disease and infection.

6. Prevent toothache
Tooth loss can create space for dangerous bacteria, plaque, and food residue to accumulate. This can result in sensitive teeth, toothache, itchy mouth, and conditions like stomatitis. Avoid ignoring painful sensations and discomfort in your mouth because it can be a sign of a severe dental problem. If you’re experiencing soreness in your mouth, especially from missing teeth, it’s essential to start treatment as soon as possible to prevent future dental problems.

The bottom line
Don't let missing teeth put you at risk of severe dental problems like jawbone deterioration, tooth extrusion, shifting teeth and gum disease. Remember that it's essential to recover your lost teeth quickly with treatments like dental implants. Dental implants are a perfect solution to restore the appearance of your smile, recover the function of your teeth and stimulate your jawbone growth. Dental implants are also very durable and immune to cavities and tooth decay, which makes them the most popular and convenient treatment for restoring missing teeth.