A beautiful smile enhances your overall appearance. It gives you charisma, self-confidence and presence. The condition of your teeth can impact your overall health because your ability to chew helps to determine your food choices. The condition of your teeth also affects your speech and your comfort in talking with others. Healthy, attractive teeth can contribute to a better quality of life.

Teeth are lost for many reasons, such as cavities, gum disease, cracked roots and accidents. When a tooth is lost, the bone that surrounds the tooth root deteriorates, or melts away. (It's similar to losing muscle when you don't work out.) That is why missing teeth can compromise your eating habits, speech and appearance.

Missing teeth in the back of your mouth can lead to the collapse of your bite. This affects the appearance of your face, your ability to eat and the health of your remaining teeth.

Ideally tooth replacement should preserve the shape of your face and be as close as possible to your natural teeth in both function and appearance. Unfortunately, traditional methods of tooth replacement, such as bridges, partials and dentures, do not preserve bone or the shape of your face.

Traditional methods involve other disadvantages as well. For example, in order to replace one missing tooth with a fixed bridge, the adjacent teeth usually must be ground down to secure a bridge in place. A bridge with three crowns is required, one crown to replace the missing tooth and two crowns to cover the ground down-down teeth. In addition to the damage to the adjacent teeth, the bone deteriorates since the missing tooth root is not replaced.

Additionally, the average life span of traditional bridgework is approximately seven years; dental implants could very well last a lifetime.

Removable partial dentures may accelerate bone deterioration. As the bone disappears, the partial denture no longer fits, which can impair quality of life. In extreme cases, people who wear ill-fitting partial dentures may avoid social contact, have unhealthy diets and suffer from sores in their mouth.

Today, dental implant treatment is the preferred method of tooth replacement. Dental implants replace missing tooth roots, helping to preserve the bone in the jawbones and original shape of the face. They form a stable foundation for replacement teeth that look, feel and function like you natural teeth.

Portions of the above information provided as a courtesy by:

The Straumann Company
Reservoir Place
1601 Trapelo Road
Waltham, MA 02451