Replacing missing teeth with dental implants:
Missing teeth solutions explained – which will be best for you? Before consulting the practice, plan and understand which treatment will best affect your condition long-term.
Losing a tooth, without a doubt, is a terrifying, worrying experience.
Whether in the upper or lower jaws, losing a tooth to trauma, decay, or gum disease should never be ignored. Living with a missing tooth or teeth has several consequences, many of which you might have already considered (e.g., the inability to eat, chew, or speak properly). But the problems don’t stop here.
Our leading implant surgeon, Dr Rohit Patel, knows all too well the first-hand effects of missing teeth on oral hygiene and health.
“Almost all patients with missing teeth experience bone loss within the first year.”
Here are the following problems he has come across when replacing missing teeth:
The gum has lost its natural protection against bacteria and debris, which heightens or worsens the risk of gum disease. Plus inflammation of the gums causes a reduction in bone density.
You have 6 Months To Bone Loss:
When patients experience edentulism (total loss), they risk greater health consequences that will require more complex, expensive dental care to resolve.
Our implant dentists like Dr Rohit Patel deal with complex missing tooth cases daily.
So, even if you choose not to replace your missing teeth at our London clinic, we hope you heed our warning and protect your mouth from further damage.
Too often, we’ve seen how patients have left it too late, leading to more procedures, more hours in the chair, and higher costs.
Save yourself time and money today.
Pressure is put on the surrounding teeth to bear the weight and natural teeth shift and move positions, negatively affecting the patient’s bite and alignment.
In recent years, missing teeth patients have moved away from older, less reliable treatments that typically don’t last forever or wreak havoc on their lifestyles (see implant alternatives).
Bridges, for example, require healthy neighbouring teeth to be compromised, and denture wearers tend to have a lower quality of life.
With that being said, these treatments are more affordable in the short term, which might make them more of an accessible tooth replacement for some patients.
Dental implants, in comparison, although an investment, last longer, look better, and prevent bone loss.
Read next: Dental implants vs bridges.
When you have a lost tooth in the portion of your visible smile, our dentists would likely prescribe single implants, which will be the best way to restore stability and aesthetics simultaneously. Once the implant has been positioned, a healing period of three months (osseointegration) will be required.
As dental implants act as an artificial tooth root, which the final restoration screws into, patients can benefit from added security compared to cemented products like dental bridges.
While dental bridges are great for replacing single-tooth loss, it’s not always the most natural-looking option for patients needing to replace front teeth. The same can be said for dentures.
Dental bridges are a cost-effective solution. But as aforementioned, dental bridges need to file down neighbouring teeth and do not mimic natural teeth as well. It might be a much better solution to combine bridges with implants to avoid causing damage to healthy teeth and provide a more stable structure for the false tooth.
Implant-supported bridges are commonly used to replace multiple gaps across the mouth and help patients save money on their treatment.
Patients with a mouth empty of teeth are often classed as complex cases, especially if they’ve had other restorative work done in the past. Often, these cases require careful attention, diagnosis and planning from an experienced prosthodontist, gum specialist and implant dentist.
All-on-4 seems to be the fastest (also called teeth-in-a-day) and most cost-effective solution in edentulous cases.
All-on-Four uses a full arch of fixed implant dentures supported by four or six dental implants. The procedure offers patients cheaper rates per implant and is hailed as the graftless solution, meaning you’ll likely be able to bypass a bone graft or sinus lift.
Other alternatives that are better than dentures include implant-retained dentures or implant-supported bridges.
Compare Implant-Based Solutions Below:
Replacing a missing tooth as soon as possible is crucial to help preserve your oral state and protect the mouth from harmful bacteria or deterioration.
However, symptoms of missing teeth can take time, causing patients to realise too late that replacing the tooth is essential.
But please rest assured that we have the technology, equipment and dentists to care for this problem and restore your oral condition to a healthier, more balanced state.
Not to mention that dental implants mimic natural teeth so well that you’ll forget you ever had missing teeth in the first place.
For advice on missing teeth, speak to our dental team on 020 7928 4474.
Finding the right prosthetic or prosthesis means looking at your lifestyle and how you want the final result to look.
The benefit of working with Mint Dental is that you’re working with dentists who can offer first-class implant-based systems that combine more traditional models of tooth replacement with the strength of dental implants.
With 295+ Google reviews and growing, our dental practice is rated one of the of the best in the South East London area.
