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We often see patients who are missing a tooth or two. They may have knocked a tooth out during a pond hockey game or during a family “touch” Turkey Bowl game. A tooth could have had excessive decay and there wasn’t any way to save it.

The why doesn’t matter; it’s the why not replace it that matters. Dr. Egger believes dental implants are far and away the best dental prosthetic and he places them all the time in his Mt. Pleasant practice.

It’s just a tooth, right?

People assume that missing a single tooth isn’t any big deal. It’s just a tooth. That’s especially the case with molars. No one can see the gap, so why bother to replace it?

Many reasons actually. Your teeth all stay in place thanks to the pressure placed on them by the teeth next to them. Remove one and the teeth on both sides slide into the gap, kind of how people slide over in the bleacher section at Michigan Stadium when someone gets up to go get a hot dog. This can mess up your alignment and your overall bite. Also, people tend to avoid chewing on the side where they are missing a tooth. This creates more wear on the other side of the mouth, along with other problems. And those are just a couple reasons to replace a missing tooth, which we’ve covered in other blogs.

The best replacement

Now we come to dental implants. If you’re missing a tooth or two, Dr. Egger would like to introduce you to his pal the dental implant. Dental implants get their name from the titanium “implant.” This is a screw-shaped device that screws down into the socket occupied formerly by your natural tooth root. Dr. Egger places the implant and then closes the tiny incision in your gums. Now you wait a few months as your jawbone grows around the implant and makes it a part of your jaw.

When this process called osseointegration is complete, you come back in and Dr. Egger attaches a post to the implant base. You then give it a few weeks for the gums to grow all around the post. For the final step, you return and Dr. Egger attaches the artificial porcelain tooth to the post. Now you have a complete dental implant! It will function just like a natural tooth. It will look just like a natural tooth. Your smile will be complete. You’ll eat normally on both sides again.

And that dental implant will likely last the rest of your life. How cool is that?

So don’t leave that gap in your life. Have that missing tooth replaced with a dental implant at Dr. Egger’s family practice in Mt. Pleasant. He’s been Mt. Pleasant’s most pleasant dentist for approaching 25 years, and he’s placed hundreds of dental implants.

Call us at (989) 773-3560 to make your appointment.