Four Benefits Of Dental Implants That You May Not Expect

Dental implants are more than just an aesthetic tooth replacement.

If you have lost a tooth, you may be considering you replacement options. Essentially, aside from leaving a gap, there are three options; a bridge, dentures or dental implants. Of these, dental implants are both the more expensive option and the one that requires the most complex treatment.

So on the surface of things, with modern dentures offering a realistic looking replacement, you may ask yourself why you would bother to have dental implants? At Mike Allen’s Dental Practice in Burton, we are firm believers in implants as the best method to replace missing teeth, and here’s why.

Secure teeth

This is probably the main benefit of implants that most patients are aware of. Because implants are placed into the jawbone and allowed to integrate with the bone, they are strong and secure and will not move around as dentures may occasionally do. This means that, once fully integrated with your jaw bone, you can treat your new implant like you would a natural tooth.

Supporting your face

Having missing teeth can change the way that you look and even hidden teeth, where you can’t see a gap when you smile, affect this. Your teeth not only serve as a useful tool for eating, but also help to support other aspects of your face.

Without teeth, the cheeks start to sink in and you may also find that your lips appear to be thinner. The angle of your jawline changes and more and more wrinkles appear around your mouth. These are all factors which can cause you to start to look older than you really are.

Bone retention

As briefly mentioned earlier, dental implants are placed into the bone. Although this may sound painful, most patients at our Burton dental practice have found this to be no more uncomfortable than many other invasive procedures, and, with a local anaesthetic, is quite manageable.

The advantage of this part of the treatment is that the titanium implant is now ‘seen’ by the bone in the same way as a natural tooth root. In order to support the new implant, the bone will remain strong and healthy if looked after. Where a replacement such as a denture or bridge is used, there is no supporting ‘root’, and the bone will degrade and thin. Especially where a number of teeth are missing, you may see changes to the shape of your face; sunken cheeks being one of the more common.

Enjoy your food

When patients choose to have dentures to replace a missing tooth, they often find that some foods are more difficult to eat than they expected. Whilst some foods, such as toffees, may be an obvious one to avoid if you wear dentures, others, such as popcorn may not be. Whilst you may be able to chew foods like popcorn, the small pieces that break away can become trapped between the dentures and your gums, making it quite painful.

With dental implants, there is no need to spend additional time scouring a menu for what you can and can’t eat. A healthy dental implant can handle any food that a natural tooth can!

If you are undecided about which teeth replacement option to choose, why not arrange a consultation at Mike Allen’s Dental Practice to discuss the pros and cons with one of our dentists? You can arrange you appointment at our Burton practice by calling us on 01283 845345.