Are you living with the inconvenience and discomfort of broken or missing teeth? Are you tired of the sticky adhesives and unpredictability of wearing dentures? In addition to affecting the appearance of your smile, these issues lead to health problems. You may be wondering if dental implants can help.
Dr. Brent Engelberg at AH Smiles in Arlington Heights, IL, would like to educate you about dental implants to learn if they can restore your smile. Below are 5 questions to ask yourself when considering dental implants.
1. Are you missing one or more of your natural teeth?
Missing teeth leave gaps in your smile that can be embarrassing and make you self-conscious about smiling, talking or eating in public. Dental implants restore the natural appearance and functioning of your smile, filling in the space left behind by the missing teeth.
2. Do I have a severely cracked tooth or a broken tooth?
If you are living with the discomfort of a cracked or broken tooth, a dental crown or a dental implant may be the best options to restore your tooth. Broken and cracked teeth can make eating painful and expose the inside of your tooth to infections. Although dentists usually want to save as much of the natural tooth structure as possible, if the tooth is damaged beyond simple repair, a dental implant will replace the injured tooth from the root up and will look and function exactly like your natural teeth would.
3. Do I have loose-fitting partials or a loose-fitting denture?
Dentures can be exasperating to deal with on a daily basis. They need messy, adhesive gel to secure them to your gums and can slip if conditions in your mouth change or the adhesive isn’t properly applied. Implants are an excellent alternative to dentures and partials as they are permanently embedded in the jaw bone. You will no longer have to worry about the embarrassment of your dentures becoming loose or falling throughout the day while talking or eating.
4. Am I starting to experience bone loss in the jaw?
Missing teeth is more than just a matter of appearance and ease of eating. Jawbone tissue can deteriorate without tooth roots to stimulate new growth. Also, the remaining natural teeth can shift when gaps are allowed to remain. With dental implants, the part of the implant that gets placed in the socket of the jawbone and acts as the artificial tooth root is made of titanium or zirconium which naturally bonds to the bone tissue.
5. Do I have a sunken-in look to my facial appearance?
You may have noticed some denture wearers appear to have sunken-in mouths. Unfortunately, this is a common problem because of bone loss as they grow older. And because dentures do not stimulate bone growth because they have no roots, the bone continues to deteriorate over time, causing the caved-in appearance of the mouth. Dental implants solve this problem by stimulating bone growth in the jaw around the implant, keeping teeth in place and preventing change in the shape of the mouth..
Call AH Smiles Today
Live in or near Arlington Heights, IL? Call AH Smiles at (847) 230-9703 for an implants consultation with Dr. Engelberg or schedule with us online. We look forward to helping you restore your smile!