Benefits of Dental Implants
Tigard, OR
 The surgical placement of dental implants provides our patients with multiple benefits in their oral health, which extends to their overall health, following the loss of teeth. Working with our staff at Tigard Family Dental, we can review your needs and discuss multiple options to having healthier teeth and gums, which may include restoring missing teeth with dental implants.
Increasingly, patients are having teeth not just replaced, but rebuilt. This is a distinct difference from previous restorations. It means recreating a direct contact with the jawbone just like your natural teeth do. Dental implants provide a foundation to rebuild missing teeth without interruption to neighboring teeth.
The implant is not a tooth, but is a new root system that we can then use to anchor a tooth, or teeth, with. It works much the same way a natural tooth root does, by serving as a connecting piece between the bone and tooth. A dental implant is a titanium or non-metallic ceramic device that we sink into the jawbone. It is shaped similarly to a screw with a threaded end that is embedded into the bone. As the bone heals, it grows around the threads fusing the device and bone firmly together. The head of the implant is designed to allow us to anchor a single tooth, or part of a multiple tooth system such as a bridge or denture. Multiple tooth systems may require multiple anchors. All of this can be discussed during your consultation.
The benefits of rebuilding missing teeth include:
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Independent Restoration: Replacing missing teeth requires something to anchor the new tooth to. In traditional practice, we would use neighboring teeth to hold the replacement tooth in place. This may include cementing crowns over healthy teeth, or using clasps to wrap around healthy teeth, but in both scenarios otherwise healthy teeth are used to support the artificial tooth. With a dental implant we can rebuild the tooth and anchor it directly to the jawbone. No neighboring teeth are required for support.
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Chewing and Speech Restoration: Missing teeth often leads to changes in how and what you can chew, and can even alter your speech. We frequently see uneven wear on teeth as the patient primarily chews on the other side of the mouth. We also hear from patients that they find themselves engaging less socially or hiding their smile out of embarrassment of their teeth. Restoring missing teeth allows you to chew your regular diet evenly, and restores varying speech sounds lost due to missing teeth.
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Oral Health Benefits: Losing a tooth may not seem like a problem, but it is a larger problem than you may realize. Missing teeth, even just one, means immediate changes or atrophy of the bone. Bones require motion or stimulation to remain robust. They reduce in size by pulling in resources when it thinks that a portion is no longer needed. Additionally, open spaces in your mouth leaves room for neighboring teeth to roam, and they rarely move in a way that you want them to. Unlike when an orthodontist removes a tooth to open up space, the neighboring teeth are not guided to move in a positive way.
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Overall Health Benefits: Many of the benefits listed above play a role in your overall health. When you alter or change your regular diet, there are effects that happen to your body. When your teeth move out of alignment, there are effects to your jaw hinge that can cause facial pain or migraines. When you pull back from social engagement due to embarrassment, there are changes that occur to your mental health. Our oral health can play a large role in our overall health because eating, talking, and even breathing all occurs with our mouth. Keeping our mouth healthy helps keep us healthy. |
For the best dental implants in Tigard, OR call Tigard Family Dental at (971) 762-1262.
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