How Implants Prevent Bone Loss
Spokane, WA
 If you are only missing a single one of your teeth, is it really anything to be concerned about? If it is not one of your front teeth, it is not like anyone will notice it anyway, right? It turns out, though, that our mouths and jaws need every single tooth - losing even just one tooth can have a major impact on your overall oral health. A big reason for this has to do with the phenomenon of jaw and gum resorption. During resorption, your jawbone literally shrinks, your facial features collapsing in on themselves. Here at Dynamic Dental Care, we can not only help treat jaw and gum resorption, but we can even help prevent it from ever happening in the first place.
Why Jaw & Gum Resorption Occurs
While your jawbone helps support and anchor your teeth, your teeth also help keep your jawbone healthy and strong. Our bones are actually alive, and require constant stimulation to maintain growth, volume, and density. For our jawbone, this stimulation comes from chewing, eating, biting, and other use of our teeth. So, when we lose a tooth, the jawbone is no longer receiving any stimulation, and the body thinks that the calcium once stored in that tooth is no longer necessary. Resorption can happen for other reasons too, even if you still have all of your teeth. It might occur because of gum disease, long-term usage of dentures, or teeth in an advanced state of disease, decay, or damage.
The Process of Resorption
The process of resorption starts immediately after losing a tooth, and it works fast. In just the first year after losing a tooth, you will experience a bone volume reduction of up to 25%. That is enough to start noticing dramatically different facial features and jaw strength quality as your body reabsorbs the bone, weakening the overall jawbone.
Preventing & Treating Resorption
When the loss of a tooth is the result of a professional removal and occurs safely in our office, one of our dental professionals can apply what is called a socket graft to the extraction site. This helps slow resorption, but it cannot stop it entirely. The only way to do that is by replacing the missing tooth root with a new, artificial one that will stimulate the jawbone just like the natural root used to. This artificial root is called a dental implant, and it resembles a tiny screw made of titanium that is actually placed within the jaw itself.
We also have different techniques at our disposal to treat resorption once it has begun. One of the most effective methods is a simple bone graft. A bone graft also can have the added bonus of increasing your viability for receiving a dental implant, preventing resorption from recurring.
You Still Have Time, Call Today!
With world-class treatment just a phone call away, we can help treat your advanced jaw and gum resorption, or stop it in its tracks before it gets worse. If you want to know more about your options, give Dynamic Dental Care a call now at (509) 466-2587! |
