Your Mouth Will Benefit in the Long-Run with Dental Implants

Teeth live in a very fragile eco-system and when something goes wrong the rest can follow…

When you think of a smile, you might instantly think of teeth; however it takes more than a couple of teeth to make a smile. The total oral region relies on the harmony of the teeth, jaws and soft tissue in order to stay healthy and stimulated. Without the help of your tongue, saliva glands, cheeks, gums and jawbone the teeth would not have much support at all. In saying this, the teeth play a crucial role in the maintenance and health of the rest of the oral region and in the absence of a tooth, the whole eco-system inside the mouth can start to deteriorate. This affects your ability to smile and using your mouth functionally can become difficult. That is why at Dr. Curtis R. Couch’s clinic in Thousand Oaks, California, we encourage patients who have missing teeth to invest in dental implants – a safe, permanent and durable way to bring the fragile eco-system inside the mouth back into balance.

Let’s take a look inside the mouth – ‘How can one missing tooth negatively affect oral harmony?’

The mouth is made up of several soft tissue and bone-like components that provide us with the ability to speak, eat, and communicate and most of all our ability to breathe. When a small component of the mouth becomes missing it may not sound like it makes a big difference (apart from aesthetically), yet each part in the mouth is designed with three things in mind: structure, function and mobility. Structure dictates how everything sits inside your mouth. It dictates how your teeth fit together, how your tongue sits between them, the size of your jaw so that it is able to accommodate everything and the structure of how food is digested in your mouth (as your food enters your mouth, the teeth are structured to maximize the breakdown of food). Function dictates how everything works. Not only how the individual components function but how they work together as a whole. The teeth are used to chew food for digestion, additionally the jaw allows the teeth to move, the tongue and cheeks push the food around and the gums keep the teeth protected and in place. In tandem, they work together to digest food. Mobility dictates how everything moves. Without the jaw the mouth would be unable to function because the teeth rely on the mobility of the jaw to chew food. Teeth themselves are not mobile and also rely on the tongue to move food around the mouth to maximize the digestibility of food.

A missing tooth is a missing cog in the system and consequently the machine (mouth) will gradually fail to work at full capacity…

In the event of even one missing tooth the mouth will not be able to perform at full capacity. If your teeth are missing, over time it can cause your mouth to malfunction in the following ways: Teeth: Having a mouth full of teeth evenly distributes pressure within the mouth during mobility. In the absence of one or more teeth, the other teeth will actually migrate to gain more space and to pick up the slack. This added pressure on the teeth will cause them to deteriorate quicker under the pressure and you can experience cracking, fractures, wear and tear, chips and even further tooth loss. Tongue: A mouth full of teeth allows the tongue to sit comfortably between them and if you have a missing tooth, and the other teeth begin to migrate, then the tongue can start to experience difficulties. The tongue can actually catch and tear on the teeth surrounding the missing tooth, causing mild to severe irritations that may result in tearing, ulcers, bleeding, cuts and deformities. Cheeks: When your mouth is closed your cheeks form comfortably around your teeth. When there is missing teeth your cheeks can push through the indentations in their absence. This can leave your cheeks susceptible to irritations such as biting, catching and rubbing against the teeth. Gums: In the absence of the missing tooth there is nothing to stimulate the gum where the tooth once stood. Over time this section of gum will slowly deteriorate because there is no stimulation between the tooth and the jawbone – this process is called gum recession. Gum recession can occur when there is a constant irritation towards the gum, such as bacteria and plaque; eventually this can lead to more serious dental problems such as gingivitis. Jaw: The jaw and teeth work together in symbiosis to stay strong and healthy. While the jaw allows the teeth to function, the teeth work to stimulate the jaw in order to keep it strong. In the absence of a tooth, the jawbone surrounding the absent tooth will no longer experience stimulation and, over time, will actually start to deteriorate in a process called reabsorption of the jawbone.

A dental implant is a revolutionary dental innovation that actually replaces the ‘missing cog in the machine’ efficiently and permanently…

At Dr. Curtis Couch dental clinic in Brandon, Florida, we replace missing teeth with dental implants. A dental implant is a small titanium alloy rod that is inserted into the position of the missing tooth, acting as a support ‘root’ for a prosthetic tooth that is placed on top. The titanium alloy is used because it is a bio-compatible material, which means there is virtually no chance of the implant being rejected by the body. Over time the jawbone will actually fuse with the titanium rod in a process called osseointegration. This implant works to stimulate the jaw, which discourages bone reabsorption, picking up the slack from the missing tooth and taking the added pressure off the remaining teeth. Your dental implant will also feel exactly like a real tooth and will encourage cheeks, gums and tongue health. [cta] Would you like to find out more about dental implants? Give Dr. Curtis R. Couch D.D.S today on (805) 497 8077.[/cta]