2 Ways A Dental Implant Can Keep Your Natural Teeth Intact
Dental implants are frequently selected to replace missing teeth in your mouth. When you have a dental implant installed into your mouth, it may improve the appearance of your smile, but it can also benefit the natural teeth in your mouth. Here a few ways that a dental implant can help keep your natural teeth intact:
A dental implant can prevent the unnecessary movement of the teeth.
Once your adult teeth present, you may think that they will remain firmly in place unless they are knocked from position. However, permanent teeth can migrate in certain instances. One of the common causes of dental migration is a missing tooth.
Each tooth in your mouth helps the teeth around it remain in place by blocking their movement. When a tooth is lost, the resulting space gives nearby teeth room to shift. Soon after a tooth is lost to decay or trauma, the shifting may not be apparent. However, gradually, over time, the teeth may take on a misaligned appearance as they move about.
When a dental implant is inserted to replace a lost tooth, it becomes the new placeholder for the teeth adjacent to it, blocking their migration.
A dental implant can help reduce jawbone atrophy.
The roots of your teeth rest inside the bones of your jaws. As you eat or chew, they crowns of the teeth receive bite pressure, and that force is transferred to the roots and subsequently, to the jawbones. When the jawbones are subjected to this force, they are stimulated to produced more bone cells.
The production of a healthy quantity of bone cells keeps the jawbone density high. However, if too few bone cells are manufactured, the bone of the jaw begins to atrophy.
Rather than resting at the gum line, a dental implant is inserted into the jawbone. It is positioned much like a natural tooth root, and once the implant restoration is complete, the implant can transfer cell-stimulating pressure to the jawbone just as a natural tooth root does.
By preventing jawbone atrophy, the implant helps nearby natural teeth remain firmly in place. A reduction in jawbone mass can eventually lead to loosened or lost teeth. As the bone diminishes around the root of a tooth, it can no longer hold the tooth firmly in place.
To learn more about dental implants and how they can benefit the other teeth in your mouth, schedule an appointment with an implant dentist in your area.