Dental implants are a fantastic way to restore gaps in your smile caused by missing teeth. They also make speaking and eating more convenient. Dental implants are a nice way to improve your quality of life and your self-esteem. They also help preserve your dental health.
Healthy Smile, Healthy Body
Your oral health is directly linked to the health of your entire body. Any factor that damages your health, particularly your immune system, will have a negative effect on the health of your smile because it will increase your risk of contracting dental diseases such as tooth decay and gum disease.
You can help protect your immune system by getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and eating a balanced diet that’s rich in vitamins and other nutrients. But it’s also important to protect your overall health by preventing dental diseases. Dental health is a key indicator of a patient’s overall health. In fact, the more teeth a patient is missing, the more likely they are to have additional health issues.
The Consequences of Ignoring Missing Teeth
The teeth in a healthy mouth support one another. If even one tooth is missing, it can have a negative impact on your gums, your jawbone, and your remaining teeth. If you are missing any teeth at all, you should see Dr. Chow as soon as possible to discuss possible solutions.
We understand the impact tooth loss has on your life and make getting the treatment you deserve easy, quick, and stress-free. With dental implants and supplemental procedures, we can treat a wide variety of dental complications including:
- Jawbone depletion—Your jawbone begins to dissolve as soon as you lose a tooth.
- Gum disease—Redness, swelling, and bleeding of the gums caused by infection.
- Additional loss of teeth—Teeth tend to slide around in the gaps left by missing teeth, which can accelerate gum disease and lead to the loss of even more teeth.
- Difficulty speaking—Your teeth play an important role in speaking which can become difficult if one or more are missing.
Tooth Loss and Gum Disease
In a healthy smile, each tooth serves as a placeholder, preventing other teeth from shifting around. But if you lose even one tooth, it damages the overall integrity of your smile. This causes two factors that contribute to gum disease. First, your gums become irritated as your remaining teeth move out of place.
The second way missing teeth contribute to gum disease is by creating spaces where plaque can grow. The bacteria that cause gum disease survives by eating plaque. Dental implants help prevent gum disease by filling these gaps and preventing your remaining teeth from shifting around.
How Gum Disease Affects the Rest of Your Body
In addition to damaging your smile, gum disease is a major threat to your overall health. That’s because the bacteria that cause gum disease can spread throughout your body.
Gum disease causes swelling of the arteries in your mouth, and we now know that this allows bacteria to spread. Research from the International Journal of Health Sciences links bacteria caused by gum disease to a number of serious health issues, including strokes, heart disease, osteoporosis, premature childbirth, Alzheimer’s Disease, and diabetes. It’s crucial to fight gum disease by visiting Dr. Chow for regular checkups and taking care of your smile by brushing and flossing every day.