Pasadena Texas Implant Dentist:
Teeth and the bone supporting teeth maintain the integrity and shape of our face. When you have all your teeth the muscles and cheeks are supported. Your facial height (the distance from you nose to your chin) appears normal when you have all of your teeth.
However, when the teeth are lost there is facial collapse. This is due to the loss of the teeth and the loss of bone that supported the teeth. The jaw bone will continue to shrink and disappear. Therefore, the muscles of the face and the cheeks will sag and appear limp. Next, the jaw will protrude and become closer to the chin because there are no teeth to maintain facial height. This causes a condition called “witch’s chin”. All of these facial changes speed up the again processes by making the individual appear prematurely elderly.
Dental Implants Preserve Bone!
When you lose a tooth the absolute best way to replace the lost tooth is with a dental implant. Dental implants are the only tooth replacement option that stimulate and preserve bone levels. A dental implant is simply a replica of a natural tooth. A titanium tooth root is inserted into the bone. Then the tooth is anchored onto the titanium tooth root.
Dental Implants in Pasadena Texas.
Dr. Michael Nugent is a regional leader in dental implants. He has a strong focus on the placement and restoration of dental implants. If you are missing a tooth call our office at 713-941-8261 and come talk to Dr. Nugent. Our office is located at 3421 Burke Rd Ste A, Pasadena, Texas 77504
Discover why Dr. Nugent has been voted Best Pasadena Texas Dentist multiple times. Dr. Nugent is one of the few trained dentists that is able to both surgically place dental implants and then restore the dental implants into beautiful teeth.
Most people don’t know that when they lose a tooth, they also lose the bone that was around that tooth. Few people think about it when they have a tooth pulled. When you lose a tooth, the jawbone that used to hold it starts to get smaller. First, the width shrinks, and then the height starts to get shorter.
Why does bone loss happen after a tooth is pulled?
The alveolar bone, which is the bone around the teeth, has only one job: to hold and support the teeth. You may have heard that gum disease (periodontal disease) can cause bone loss. This happens when toxins from bacteria in plaque buildup kill the bone around a tooth while the tooth is still in place. After a tooth is pulled, the bone just shrinks because it doesn’t have a tooth to support anymore.
The bone loss happens because that part of bone isn’t being used to chew. When a tooth touches another tooth while biting or eating, the force goes down the roots and into the bone around it. This tells tiny cells that make bones to get to work. Without the force of eating, these cells can’t work, and the bone slowly breaks down.
Why does the loss of bone after a tooth is pulled matter?
When you lose bone where a tooth used to be, there are a few things that could go wrong. When several teeth are missing in a row, the risks go up. It makes the gums and bone around the teeth next to it shrink. When a tooth is missing, the gums and bone on the side of the tooth facing the empty spot usually recede. Over time, this loss of support makes it harder for these teeth to stay healthy. It makes the bone weaker and makes it more likely that the mouth will break. When a lot of teeth are lost all at once, the jawbone gets thin and short. In general, it gets a lot weaker. If you were to fall or get hurt in the face, you would be much more likely to break that part of your jawbone.
Bone loss could stop a dental implant from being used to replace that missing tooth in the future.
A tooth extraction is something that many people need to do, and sometimes they need to do it quickly. This means that they might not plan to replace the tooth right away with a dental implant, putting it off until a long time from now. It is possible for the bone around a lost tooth to shrink so much that there is no longer enough bone to support a dental implant.
Most of the time, your doctor can add more bone to the area with a type of surgery called bone grafting. This may give the bone enough width and height to hold an implant. Of course, as with most things, it is much easier and cheaper to stop bone loss than to try to build it back up.
How can you stop bone loss after having a tooth pulled?
When Dr. Nugent pulls a tooth, he will talk to you about a “socket preservation graft” if you want to replace it with an implant in the future. This is a very easy type of bone graft in which material is put right into the spot where the tooth was taken out. By filling in the hole left by an extraction and giving new bone something to grow on, you can slow down the process of bone loss.
We say “slow down” instead of “prevent” because you could still lose bone over time even if you slow it down.
How do you stop bone loss after having a tooth pulled?
To keep bone loss from happening after a tooth is pulled, you should get a replacement tooth as soon as possible. To be more exact, you need a dental implant to replace the root of the missing tooth as soon as possible.
There is nothing wrong with getting a bridge or a portable partial instead of a dental implant to replace a tooth. They don’t repair the tooth’s root, so they don’t stop bone loss over time. Patients with removable aids like partials and dentures will notice this the most. Over time, as the bone shrinks and a small space forms between the tooth and the gums, it’s easy for them to see the changes. This causes pain, rubbing, looseness, and trouble eating.
An implant is the only tooth replacement options that stimulates and preserves the jaw bone.
