The thing about your missing tooth
When your tooth gets extracted or it falls out, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Certainly not the repercussions it might bring if you do not replace the tooth. Rather, you’d be thinking about how everyone would be staring at you because of that nasty-looking gaping hole in your mouth.
Aesthetics & Others
Certainly, missing a front tooth or teeth can be very distressing indeed to many of us as such gaps are deemed unsightly to most people. Without our full set of teeth, we will tend to be more self-conscious, have lower self-esteem, and in turn become less sociable. Our teeth affect our social life, our job opportunities, and also our communication – the lack of a full set of teeth could hinder you from enunciating.
These few issues just graze the tip of the iceberg of the long list of problems a missing tooth can bring.
Diet
A missing tooth will cause it to be difficult for us to chew efficiently especially if the missing tooth is a posterior one. As a result, we slowly modify our diets to ones that requires less chewing and may be higher in calorific content, which may cause us to find it hard to enjoy food.
Shifting Teeth
A missing tooth in our dental arch also means that arch integrity is lost. Because of this, teeth adjacent to the gap now have space to move around, resulting in tipping, tilting and rotation of the remaining adjacent teeth, and changes our bite.
Trapped Food
Spacing between teeth may start to appear near the missing tooth gap, causing food to get lodged inside. Consequently, tooth decay or gum disease may occur.
Supra-Eruption
Supra-eruption may also occur, whereby the tooth opposite the gap erupts excessively, leading to malalignment, food being trapped, and affecting our bite.
In some cases, the tooth may erupt so much that it reaches the other jaw and causes ulcer formation, pain, swelling and bleeding.
Shrinking Bone Volume
Because there is no longer any tooth root present to support the bone, the bone will gradually shrink in volume. You may then have to do bone grafting in the event that you want to insert an implant in the future.
The Future Starts Today, Not Tomorrow
When we are missing our teeth, our function and aesthetics will be affected and in turn, our quality of life will be affected. If left alone for too long, replacing the missing tooth becomes harder because of the other teeth in the way. This is why our dentists strongly urge patients to undertake necessary measures, like inserting implants, to replace the missing teeth.
Our Greenlife dentists specialise in implants, so visit them today to save yourself from future complications!
