Your teeth affect your whole body. When they're healthy, you're healthier too. A missing tooth can affect your bite, speech and eating choices. As you rely more on your remaining teeth, you increase the chance they will wear out prematurely, or be damaged or lost. You may also experience headaches and jaw pain.
The natural consequence of missing teeth is that the jaw literally melts away. Generally, people will lose 25% of their supporting jawbone structure within the first year after tooth loss. The great news? Nowadays, most dental prosthetics can be fitted onto dental implants that act just like your natural teeth! They safeguard and preserve your bone structure, oral health and appearance. You can learn more about dental implants in our Dental Implants section.
A good candidate for dental prosthetics is anyone missing one or more teeth, has jaw or face abnormalities/injuries, or who is unhappy with their dentures. You can select from a number of different options to replace your missing teeth – from temporary to long-lasting solutions.
Crowns
Crowns are a great solution for restoring significantly damaged teeth where fillings are not an option. A dental crown is tooth-shaped cap that is permanently attached to either a damaged tooth or a dental implant. All of our crowns are custom made with high quality materials and can match the exact shade of your existing teeth.
If your tooth is already missing, or is damaged to the point that it must be removed, the crown can be attached to a previously placed dental implant.
Otherwise, the crown can be cemented over the tooth in order to restore the tooth's strength, shape and size, and improve its appearance. Crowns can hold weak, broken or cracked teeth together to avoid further fracturing. They can also be used to support large fillings, attach a bridge, or cover discolored or deformed teeth.
Bridges
A bridge is a fixed dental restoration used to replace a missing tooth (or several teeth) by joining an artificial tooth permanently to adjacent teeth or dental implants. When natural teeth are used as the attachment points, the protective outer layer of these teeth must usually be removed or ground down prior to attaching the bridge. Types of bridges may vary, depending upon how they are fabricated and the way they anchor to the adjacent teeth.
Complete and Partial Dentures
A denture is an artificial set of removable teeth made of acrylic resin, sometimes combined with metal. Dentures replace missing teeth and adjacent tissues. A partial denture serves to fill in the spaces made by missing teeth and prevents the remaining teeth from shifting position in the jaw. Complete dentures replace all of the teeth.While dentures are the most common solution for people missing all teeth in one or both jaws, not all people adapt well to dentures – some find them uncomfortable.
Why select Dental Implants over more traditional types of restorations?
There are several reasons – a dental bridge can sacrifice the structure of surrounding good teeth to bridge the space of the missing teeth. In addition, removing a denture or a "partial" at night may be inconvenient, not to mention dentures that slip can be uncomfortable and rather embarrassing. By fitting the appropriate dental prosthetics onto dental implants, Dr. Smirnova can completely restore your smile to its original, natural look and feel! You can learn more about dental implants in our Dental Implants section.
