When it comes to your oral health, dental implants play a larger role than you might think. Yes, dental implants permanently replace missing teeth. But is that all there is to it? At Radiance Dental, our Camas implant dentists have seen firsthand how implants allow for both better oral health as well as improved confidence and lifestyles. The night-and-day difference is priceless for our patients with missing teeth.
Health Effects of Tooth Loss
As people lose their natural teeth, it affects them physically and emotionally. You may feel a drop in self-confidence, refraining from having your picture taken, laughing around your friends, or even smiling in front of family members. The effects are far-reaching. But investing in dental implants is the closest anyone can get to having natural teeth again.
Instead of wearing dentures, which limit your speech and chewing abilities, dental implants act just like your natural teeth. So you can eat your favorite foods, never take your “new teeth” out at night, and don’t have to worry about re-learning how to talk with your dental implants.
Premature Aging and Appearance
Technically, dental implants are not a cosmetic dentistry procedure. But they do offer aesthetic benefits, particularly because of the facial changes that occur with tooth loss. For example, a lost tooth no longer promotes bone integrity or supports the cheeks and lips in that space.
As you lose nearby teeth, those areas of your facial profile begin to collapse inward. The results are sunken-in facial tissues, a “short” looking jaw, wrinkled or creasing skin, and premature aging in your overall face.
When we place dental implants at Radiance Dental, they act like your natural teeth. They also promote healthier bone around them, limiting additional changes in your face shape. As they fill in the space behind your lips and cheeks, you essentially reverse the premature aging that comes with tooth loss.
Boost Self Confidence and Self Esteem
There are no words to describe the way our patients look and feel about themselves after they complete their dental implant treatment. Oftentimes, there are tears in their eyes because of how happy they are. Even with complicated dental issues, implants for one or more teeth give you a brand-new smile you can be proud of.
Living with dental implants means you never have to worry about selecting the right types of foods when you’re out on a dinner date. Instead, choose whatever you want from the menu; nothing needs to be soft or cut up into small pieces. Missing teeth are an afterthought.
If you’ve worn dentures in the past, you’ll suddenly remember what it was like to talk normally again. Full arch implants eliminate the bulky “plate” across the roof of your mouth, so your speech patterns are the same as when you had real teeth.
As much as you love your family, knowing that you never have to take dentures out at night is a huge emotional boost. Your confident smile lasts 24/7.
It’s priceless when you know that your new prosthesis isn’t going to slip out of place, make your speech sound funny and that it looks natural. Regardless of how many surrounding teeth are missing. New implants boost your confidence in ways you never thought of before.
Maintain a Balanced Diet and Nutritional Intake
When you have a missing tooth, you naturally shift to chewing in other parts of your mouth. This can lead to irregular wear patterns in your healthy teeth, especially if the adjacent natural teeth start to drift out of alignment. And with multiple missing teeth or atypical bites comes a decrease in nutrient absorption. Why? Because our teeth cannot completely break down our food as well for digestive purposes.
At Radiance Dental, we frequently see issues in older individuals who have multiple missing teeth or no natural teeth at all. When they lose the ability to eat nutrient-dense foods, they shift to softer processed foods, which then leads to unhealthy weight and a dip in immune health.
Am I a Good Candidate for Dental Implants?
Before someone gets dental implants, our Camas dentists will need to evaluate their oral health, screen them for gum disease, and check for signs of bone loss. We use high-definition imaging as well as visual examinations to determine each person’s eligibility. Once we’ve ruled out any active gum disease/infection and ensured there is enough healthy bone growth to support implants, we can determine how many and where each implant should be installed.
An implant fills in the space of one natural tooth root. But we can pair them together to restore multiple missing teeth. Each person’s oral health plan differs from the next. The priority is not to alter adjacent teeth, so we adjust the care plan accordingly.
If you have good oral health, no serious medical conditions, and you are missing teeth or need teeth removed, then you probably qualify for dental implants.
Why Dental Implants are the Best Tooth Replacement
When you need to replace missing teeth, traditional options like dentures, partial dentures, or fixed bridges are almost always an option. But these restorations don’t last forever, and they permanently alter natural tooth structure and bone growth.
In contrast, dental implants are the only artificial tooth option that mirrors healthy teeth both in performance and integrity. Every custom dental implant stands independently of other teeth in your mouth. There’s no need to alter adjacent teeth or replace them every 7-10 years because well-maintained dental implants can function for a lifetime. They offer the best return on investment out of any other tooth-replacement treatment we can offer.
Improve Your Oral Health at Radiance Dental
At Radiance Dental, our Camas implant dentist can help you improve your oral health and naturally boost your confidence with an attractive new smile. Regardless of why you need to replace missing teeth, dental implants can boost your speech, diet, social life, and more.
Contact our dental implant dentists in Camas, WA, today to learn more about our custom dental implants. Flexible payment options and financing plans are available.
