When you grow up and stop believing in Tooth Fairy, you also quickly start realizing that losing teeth is not a very fun experience! Losing teeth impacts more than just the appeal of your healthy smile. From how you communicate by impacting your speech to your eating and chewing ability, missing teeth can have a more major influence on your life than you realize. As an adult, chances are that you take the loss of a tooth as an inevitability rather than a big issue. Studies show that many American adults are living with missing teeth. Whatever the reason, whether it is infection or injury, a missing tooth can have far-reaching adverse effects in your life than you have probably thought about. It may also impact your confidence and self-esteem along with creating a myriad of problems if not addressed and treated in time. In such cases, regular dental check-up from Allure Dental can help, as they can tell you the remedy for your missing tooth. Let us learn about why you shouldn’t ignore missing teeth in your jawbone.
- Result in gum diseases: In addition to acting as a physical reminder of what you have just lost, the gap left by a missing tooth serves as a sanctuary for germs. It serves as a spot for food scraps to accumulate when you eat, which will attract mouth bacteria. Without careful cleaning, germs can grow and start irritating your gums, which might result in the early stages of gum disease.
- Shifting teeth and misalignment: Your teeth are positioned closely together by nature; therefore, when you lose a tooth, the teeth next to it have a big space between them. What you may not be aware of is that these nearby teeth will start to tilt or move into that gap over time. This movement can have a domino effect. As more space opens up between them and their surrounding teeth, the teeth closest to the gap start to tilt. Finally, the teeth next to it start to lean towards that opening, and so on. Your initially straight teeth will soon become misaligned. More than just an aesthetic issue, misaligned teeth may also lead to headaches and jaw discomfort.
- Loss of bone mass: Although you may not be aware of it, your jawbone requires stimulation to maintain its size and form. Your jaw’s bone mass depends on how connected it is to your teeth. When a tooth is lost, the surrounding bone loses mass because it no longer receives the necessary stimulation. Your face may alter form as a result of bone mass loss over time. Your jaw may become unstable as a result, which may reduce its capacity to maintain your remaining teeth. This results in instability for the adjoining teeth and may cause a noticeable loss of facial bone structure.
- Difficulty with speech: If you have a missing tooth, it could affect how you talk. Even though we often don’t consider it, your teeth’s structures vibrate in response to your breath to produce speech. Even a single lost tooth has the capacity to affect your speech! When you are young, having a lisp brought on by a few missing teeth might be adorable. Maybe not so much as an adult. You might have noticed changes in your speech or difficulty pronouncing particular syllables as soon as you realized you had a missing tooth. You should see a dentist as soon as you can for a variety of reasons, including this one.
- Difficulty with eating: A lost tooth may affect more than just speech; it can also affect what and how you eat. The way you chew may be impacted by even little shifts in your mouth. Your mouth will alter how you chew to make up for a missing tooth. This can cause you to just eat on one side of your mouth or alter how you bite altogether. These alterations may eventually cause jaw discomfort in addition to more severe problems. Make sure to discuss the missing teeth with your dentist as soon as you detect them unless you like living on a liquid diet.
Your teeth work as a common unit, and if one of them is gone, the rest of the unit can suffer. As we already discussed, you should never consider the loss of teeth as just a cosmetic issue. It can impact your oral health and the way you look. You should immediately seek professional dental treatment, no matter how you lose your teeth. They can restore not only your smile with a wide range of solutions, including implants, dentures, and bridges but also revitalize your self-confidence. Hence go for dental services from an experienced and licensed dentist for the best results. Check out this kids dentist in Las Vegas now to get started.