Dental implants are a unique treatment with unique benefits.
When it comes to replacing missing teeth, dental implants are a unique option that has a long list of clear benefits. Their customized design and ability to look completely natural means that they give you your smile back—and with it, increase your confidence. They also restore the function of your teeth, allowing you to properly chew and enjoy a wider variety of foods completely free of worry. But have you thought beyond these well-known benefits to consider how dental implants might affect other areas of your life?
Dental implants are becoming increasingly popular because they have so many benefits, including several you may not have considered before. To help you learn more about dental implants and whether they could be right for you, we’ve broken down 4 key benefits of dental implants that you might not have thought of.
1. Dental implants maintain the natural structure of your jaw and face.
Your tooth roots have several incredibly important jobs, but one of their least-known jobs is keeping your jawbone healthy. They do this by providing your jawbone with constant stimulation as you bite into and chew food, which then tells your body that it needs to continue sending nutrients to your jawbone. It’s this process that keeps your jaw strong and healthy.
When you lose one or more teeth, however, you also lose the stimulation to your jawbone in that area. Without it, your body begins reabsorbing the bone there, leading to a loss in bone density. Over time, this weakens your jaw and can even alter the structure and appearance of your face, causing your jaw to look sunken or caved in. Thankfully though, this isn’t inevitable!
Dental implants can prevent bone loss in your jaw. In fact, out of all the tooth replacement options that modern dentistry has to offer, dental implants are the only option that can prevent bone loss. This is because only dental implants go beyond replacing the chewing surface of your tooth to replace its root as well. With dental implants, your new titanium tooth root provides the constant stimulation that your jawbone needs, keeping it strong and healthy—and thus protecting your face shape—for decades to come!
2. They make speaking easy again.
Dental implants make speaking easy again in a couple of ways. One is simply by filling gaps in your smile. Our teeth play vital roles in the way we make sounds, so losing teeth in certain areas of your mouth can make it hard to make these sounds properly. Simply filling the gap in your smile with a tooth implant gives your tongue and lips a surface to interact with, helping you make the sounds you need for clear, proper speech easily again. It’s a small detail, but it can make a huge difference in your confidence and day-to-day life.
Additionally, if you have dentures that don’t fit well, they can slip or slide around when you’re speaking or laughing. Dental implants prevent this entirely by holding implant-supported dentures securely in place. You don’t have to worry about them moving around when you’re speaking or laughing and can instead simply focus on enjoying the moment. You’ll be able to completely lose yourself in the animated story you’re telling—no splitting your attention with trying to predict your dentures’ next move. Plus, since dental implants prevent bone loss in your jaw, implant-supported dentures don’t stop fitting as well as the years go by. It’ll be just as easy to speak without worrying about them a year or two from getting them as it was when you first got them!
3. Dental implants improve and protect your oral health.
Like other tooth replacement options, dental implants keep your remaining teeth from shifting into the new gap in your smile. This protects your oral health by ensuring it’s easy to brush and floss your teeth, which helps you prevent cavities and gum disease. Shifting teeth can also change the way your bite fits together, which increases your chances of developing TMJ disorder, so preventing them from shifting in the first place protects you from this.
Dental implants are also better for your teeth than other tooth replacement options, like bridges, because they don’t require any unnecessary procedures on otherwise healthy teeth. Bridges require crowns to be placed on the two teeth on either side of the gap to support your new teeth, but it’s always best to preserve as much of your natural tooth structure as possible. Since they’re anchored directly in your jaw like a natural tooth, dental implants fill the gap in your smile without negatively impacting nearby healthy teeth. This helps these teeth stay as natural and healthy as they can be for years to come.
4. They protect your overall health.
One of the well-known benefits of dental implants is that they make it easy to eat a wide variety of foods again, but many people don’t realize how big of an impact this can have on your health. Many of the foods that are hard to eat when you’re missing teeth or have traditional dentures are healthy foods like fruits and vegetables or tough meats. Dental implants make it easy to eat all of these foods again, even foods like corn on the cob, which allows you to return to eating a healthier, more varied—and more delicious—diet. This is better for your long-term health because it ensures that you get all of the vitamins and nutrients that you need from your diet.
Plus, your overall health is more closely linked to your oral health than you may realize! Oral health issues like gum disease can increase your risk of developing serious health conditions like respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular disease, and more. It can also lead to pregnancy complications and make it harder to control existing health conditions like diabetes. As a result, dental implants help you care for your overall health by allowing you to eat healthier and making it easier for you to care for your oral health.
Are you ready to restore your oral health and your smile?
When you begin learning more about the benefits of dental implants, from those that are well-known to those that are less so, it’s easy to see why they’re so often described as the best way to replace missing teeth. There’s simply no other tooth replacement option like implants! If you’d like to learn more about dental implants in Boise, ID, and whether they’re right for you, feel free to schedule a consultation with Dr. Staley at any time.
