Sometimes a tooth cannot be saved. Maybe it has been damaged from a sports injury or other trauma. Maybe the decay in the tooth is just too involved to leave enough healthy tooth for a filling. Or maybe, the tooth has been damaged for too long and is dying. In these cases, extraction is necessary.
But what to do about the gap?
Some people think you can leave a gap from a single tooth alone. After all, it’s only a single tooth, right? Well, this can lead to a series of problems.
First, the teeth on both sides of the missing tooth tend to want to fill the space, sliding out of alignment in doing so. Second, a healthy tooth keeps the jawbone below it healthy. How? When you chew food, a certain amount of energy goes down through the tooth into the jawbone below. This energy keeps the jawbone continually adding new mass. When a tooth or teeth are missing, that area of the jawbone no longer receives that stimulation and begins to lose bone mass.
Implants to the rescue
You can have a bridge with a crown to replace that missing tooth, or you can have a dental implant. At EMA Dental, we believe implants are the best choice for permanent replacement.
A dental implant is actually a titanium screw that is placed down into the root socket from the missing tooth. The titanium implant is left in place to allow the jawbone to accept it and grow around it, a process known as osseointegration. Once this has happened and the implant is now basically part of your jaw, a post is attached to the implant with an artificial tooth on top of that.
Just like a real tooth
That artificial tooth feels and functions just like a natural tooth. Why? Because it is anchored into the jawbone exactly as a natural tooth is. You can eat whatever you want, and caring for an implant is just like caring for a natural tooth.
Do you have a missing tooth? Let’s replace it with a dental implant at EMA Dental. Call us for an appointment at either of our two offices.