If you suffer from a missing back tooth, you may think you don’t need to treat it. After all, non-front teeth don’t affect how your smile looks to others. What’s the harm in leaving it alone? In truth, though, you really should replace it with a dental implant. If you don’t, you’ll end up putting your oral health at serious risk. As for why that’s the case, your Gainesville dentist is here to explain. Here’s a summary of what’ll happen if you don’t replace a lost back tooth and why to switch to a dental implant.
What if I Don’t Replace a Lost Back Tooth?
Left untreated, a missing back tooth will cause various oral health problems. These include the following:
A Crooked, Gapped Smile
As it turns out, the space left by your lost tooth won’t just sit idle. Rather, it’ll gradually shift your other teeth towards itself. This process, in turn, could lead your whole smile to become crooked or misaligned.
If you let the shifting go too far, your remaining teeth could also fall out.
Facial Collapse
When a socket in your jaw lacks a tooth, you lose bone around the area.
You see, the former tooth stimulated your jawbone when you chewed with it. Now that it’s gone, though, the bone mass will shrink and weaken. The reabsorption will then cause your mouth to shift and sag, making you seem older. Since facial features are aligned, the missing tooth could also cause specific muscles to droop.
Difficulty Eating
A missing back tooth can make chewing food harder, even if you have plenty of other natural teeth. The fact is that molars are the teeth that grind food into digestible pieces. With one less of them, you may find it challenging to break food down before swallowing.
Why Switch to a Dental Implant?
Fortunately enough, switching to a dental implant will solve the above problems.
For starters, implants are the only restorations that fuse with your jawbone. In doing so, they stop surrounding teeth from tilting and shifting. They also give your jaw the stimulation it needs to retain its bone mass. No more having to worry about facial collapse!
Furthermore, implants work like natural teeth. Their titanium posts make them durable enough to restore your chewing ability. Even better, implants are known to last fifteen to twenty years when given proper care.
Replacing your missing back tooth with a dental implant is your best option. That said, talk to your local dental provider about treatment in the coming days.
About the Practice
Lifetime Dental is based in Gainesville, GA. As led by Dr. Shue Her, our practice strives to give patients the best dental care possible. We do so by offering preventive, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry, not to mention emergency procedures. Our office is also a certified provider of dental sedation, gum disease treatment, and TMJ therapy. For more information or to book an appointment, reach us on our website or by phone at (770)-536-6688.