You just had a tooth extracted due to unavoidable circumstances. The oral region where your tooth was extracted has healed. The truth is now you have a missing tooth. Missing tooth brings other issues, they bring about consequences and these consequences are pretty important that they need to be addressed.
Consequences of Missing Tooth
- Consequences on stability – The primary consequence of having a missing tooth is the effect it has on your jaw bones and teeth. Teeth are said to stimulate the gum and bone that hold them. In the absence of a tooth the gum and the bone are not stimulated and they beging to recede. The recession of the bone causes the bone to erode in the place where the tooth was extracted and this erosion affects the adjacent teeth too whereby affecting the stability of the teeth in the oral region.
- A related consequence on stability – In the missing tooth area, the opposing tooth will not have a counterpart and will grow into the gap of the missing tooth. This causes the opposing tooth to also become instable over a period of time. On the same note, the adjacent teeth also begins to slant into the missing tooth area and this can also contribute to instability of the other healthy teeth.
- Consequences on Chewing – Another important consequence is the effect the missing tooth has on chewing. The food is not chewed where the tooth is missing and so one tends to chew only on the other side. This causes imbalance and can lead to jaw joint problems. The worst scenario is having all back tooth extracted. In this case, no chewing takes place at all and this can lead to indigestion problems.
- Consequences on Appearance – The other consequence is the appearance one gets eventually after having a missing tooth for quite sometime. The bone and the gum recession causes the vertical height loss in the face. This loss causes an wrinkles to appear and you may begin to look old.
How to address missing tooth?
Missing tooth can be addressed by three solutions. They are as follows.
- Partial Dentures – They are basically false removable teeth. The false teeth are held together by a plastic or metal frame. They are normally fixed to the adjacent natural teeth. They arevisible when smiling or laughing and hence are not an aesthetic option. They are supposed to be removed in the night and should also be cleaned for.
- Dental Bridge – A bridge has a false tooth which is supported by the crowns of the adjacent natural teeth. The only disadvantage of this solution is the adjacent natural teeth have to be contoured or shaved to lodge the crown on top that supports the false teeth.
- Dental Implants – By far this is the best solution for one or many missing teeth. They have two structures, one is the impant which is a type of anchor like structure fixed by drilling the jaw bone directly. The other part is the crown of the teeth that is fixed atop the impant to give a natural look. This method of replacing a missing tooth is a better option as it neither involves removing or cleaning, nor shaving the adjacent natural teeth.