Dental implants have multiple functions. Apart from providing aesthetics as a result of recitifying the missing tooth, they can save your jaw by preserving its shape, from weakening and also from shrinkage. They can achieve all these because they arrest the erosion of jaw bones. Let us explore them in detail.
The perils of a missing tooth
Dr. Sravanthi, the leading dentist in Chennai strongly recommends to go in for a dental implant in case you have a missing tooth arising out of a fall, a trauma or even after tooth extraction. The missing tooth eventually can cause erosion to the jaw bones beneath as there is no enough pressure exerted as a result of the absence of tooth. This can lead to many problems which are enlisted and explained below.
Preserving the shape of your Jaw bone
The jaw bone can change in shape if the missing tooth is not attended to. The change in shape is caused as a result of bone loss beneath the missing tooth. The bone loss can be accelerated by age too.
Preserving the shrinkage of your jaw bone
The jaw bone can shrink if there is a change in the shape of the jaw as a result of bone erosion. This shrinkage can give a drooping look and can make you appear aged.
Preventing the weakening of jaw bone
Eventually an out-of-shape jaw bone that has shrunk can pose danger to the stability of the jaw bone. This instability can cause the entire jaw bone to become weak. As a consequence the other teeth are also impacted and weakened.
Can bridge and dentures serve as an alternative and save the jaw?
Not really. With bridge and dentures, you might probably be able to bite and chew your favorite food. But they are not a real alternative to the dental implants. Bridges though they are a fixed option, they do not have any control over progressive bone loss. Dentures on th other hand come no where near a dental implant. They are removable, keep getting loosened with time and after years of using dentures even retaining them will be a risk because there will be total bone loss where the height of the bone is totally reduced. So only dental implants can save jaw bones from shrinking and weakening.