Dental implants are a modern, permanent solution to tooth loss. At Broadway Dental in Loughton we are keen to stress that missing teeth should always be replaced, and believe that in many cases implants are the perfect way to do so.
The advantages of dental implants
If you’ve lost one or more teeth, you should contact your dentist as soon as possible to discuss tooth replacement. To do otherwise risks both your dental and general health, with common side-effects of tooth loss including more strain being put on any remaining teeth (which can become crooked and harder to clean if they move into gaps), difficulties in eating chewy or solid foods, problems with speech, and a negative impact on your self-confidence.
An additional complication of losing several teeth is bone shrinkage. When many or all of the natural teeth are lost from one jaw, the jaw bone can start to resorb, which can make placing dental implants more complex in the future, can cause your dentures to become loose, and can lead to sagging of the skin around the face and jowls.
Dental implants are the only tooth replacement option that addresses the problem of bone loss. Small titanium screws that your dentist places directly in your jaw bone in a small operation, carried out here at our Loughton practice, implants replace the roots of teeth. They support bone growth and ensure that your new teeth – dentures, a bridge, or crowns – stay firmly in place, enabling you to eat what you like, to smile, speak, and laugh with confidence, and with no fear of your new teeth becoming loose or falling out.
The dental implants team at our Loughton practice can use these bionic tooth roots to replace one, some, or even all of your natural teeth. When you come for a consultation with an implant dentist, they will examine you and discuss the number of implants you will need.
Every patient’s needs are different, but in many cases you won’t need as many dental implants as new teeth. A single dental implant can usually support several teeth in the form of a bridge or denture.