Top 5 things You’re Missing When You Are Missing Teeth

Top 5 things You’re Missing When You Are Missing Teeth

Dental Education Library

1. Healthy teeth.

A missing tooth can cause the teeth around the space to shift and in turn open up larger spaces between teeth and expose the roots of otherwise healthy teeth. This provides more areas for food and bacteria to hide, making cleaning and hygiene more difficult. This of course can lead to tooth decay and gum disease.

2. Your jaw bone. Literally.

As soon as a tooth is removed your jaw bone under goes changes in order to remodel the bone around the extraction site. During the first year after the extraction is when most of the bone loss occurs in both height and width as the bone is no longer needed to support a tooth.  

Having large holes in your gums gives bacteria a place to live, causing plaque to develop. That bacteria spreads to the other areas of the mouth and cavities form. That is why if a person is missing one tooth, they eventually need a partial or complete set of dentures or dental implants in the long run.

Your lips and cheeks lose their support which can give someone a more aged appearance.

3. Your ability to chew well and break down your food properly.

Missing even one tooth can change the way you chew your food. The opposite tooth becomes useless (like one hand clapping) which will impact the way your food is broken down. Food that is not broken down as well can cause issues such as choking and acid reflux.

4. The ability to speak properly.

If your teeth are missing, you may have difficulty pronouncing certain words. Your tongue, lips and front teeth help in forming speech sounds properly.  By replacing missing teeth, making that all important speech would become a much easier endeavour!

5. A confident smile.

Quite often when people are missing a tooth, especially a tooth in the front of their mouth, they tend to get self-conscious about their smile.  Just think about how much you love to socialize, not just in person with family and friends, but maybe with that stranger you’ve been dying to meet or even just taking that perfect selfie! Being self conscious about your smile can have a negative impact on your confidence and may even prevent some people from socializing as often.

If you have a missing tooth, or a few of them, contact Credit River Dental Centre today and see what we can do for you to prevent your teeth from further damage and give you back your smile!