The Effects of Tooth Loss

Houston, TX

You may have thought that losing a tooth is not a big deal. After all, there are at least three dozen teeth left in your mouth. And if you do lose teeth, it is not like you can do anything about it. People lose teeth over time, after all. However, that is just where you are wrong. At University Periodontal Associates, our team, including Dr. Dennison, do not just help people look better. Preventing tooth loss helps people have a better quality of life. It is also possible to age without losing all of your teeth. But when you do lose your teeth, it is up to us to ease the pains and problems like these.

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Difficulty Chewing

Normally, teeth come together to form a proper bite. This is when the grooves on your lower teeth match with those on the upper teeth. They do not have to be exact. But a proper bite lets you chew food more easily than doing it without one. With a missing tooth, you will start having problems with your bite. If it is a molar tooth, then your food will naturally fall down the space where your tooth used to be. It can also cause your back teeth to shift forward. That way, the grooves will become mismatched, ruining your bite even further.

Speech Problems

For some people, a missing tooth can give them a lisp. Words with letters like “z” or “s” can be hard to pronounce without frontal teeth. Although this can be corrected with speech therapy, it is always better if we can save your teeth or place an implant, instead. That way, your mouth can feel as normal as your mouth used to be. In fact, our prosthodontists can make naturally-fitting teeth that feel quite like normal teeth. This is because we take measurements of your mouth before making the prosthetic crown. With a dental x-ray, we can assess the state of your gums, teeth, and the small kinks and ridges that make each mouth feel and speak differently for every person.

Jaw And Bone Deformation

Lastly, the most common problem with tooth loss is the effect it has on your jaws. Your teeth are normally held up by two things: your gums and your jawbones. The gums push them inwards while the jawbones prop them out. Without teeth, a small layer of your jawbones that touch your teeth tend to shrink or get reabsorbed into your body. While small, losing this layer can be problematic. For one, this shrinkage can make your prosthetic bridges noticeable. They tend to lose their fit. We also fit implants on this layer because of its inherent toughness. Without it, we would need to drill deeper and transplant bone tissues just to have enough for dentures to sit on.

Schedule an Appointment

Fortunately, there are ways to deal with these tooth loss-related problems. Besides oral prophylaxis and proper dental hygiene to keep your teeth healthy, we can fix these with the right dental prosthetics. At University Periodontal Associates, we can give you the right treatment whenever you need it. Just visit us in our office or call us at (832) 975-0990 to schedule an appointment today.

You can also contact us online via various digital platforms!