Let the Caribou Migrate, Not Your Teeth

Lots of us lose a tooth. Maybe we took a puck in the kisser during a pond hockey game. Maybe we had a tooth with so much decay it had to be removed. Whatever the reason, 178 million Americans are missing at least one tooth. And they don’t all play in the NHL!

After a person loses a tooth, they often wait to replace it, especially if the tooth is in an inconspicuous place such as in among the molars. Often that initial delay leads to not ever getting the tooth replaced. After all, it’s just a missing tooth, right? Wrong. Waiting or not having a missing tooth replaced can have serious results.

Dr. Egger likes his patients to know the “why” behind their various dental procedures. Here’s the reason to have a missing tooth replaced with an implant or a bridge.

Migrating teeth

Don’t think that caribou, wildebeasts, or Canadian geese are the only things that migrate. When you leave a gap in your teeth, the teeth on both sides of the gap tend to try to move into the gap to fill it. This happens when they no longer have pressure from the teeth on both sides to stay in place. This makes the teeth misaligned and can create problems with chewing and even speaking. Your bite can become affected, making you avoid certain foods. It can lead to temporomandibular jaw disorder.

Jawbone erosion

Jawbone erosion is another possible consequence of tooth loss. In normal conditions, the biting and chewing pressure produced by a tooth stimulates the underlying jawbone to continue regenerating new bone mass. The absence of this bite force energy when you’re missing a tooth creates a spot in the jaw that doesn’t receive the energy and the jawbone can start to degrade in that spot. As jawbone atrophy progresses, it can affect the appearance as the lower third of the face can collapse inward, a characteristic you’ve seen in older people with tooth loss. Jawbone atrophy will also affect the eventual replacement of the tooth with a dental implant, as the jawbone will need a bone grafting procedure to regain enough mass to support the implant.

Dental implants

A dental implant is the preferred tooth replacement method of Dr. Egger. An implant is basically a titanium screw that is placed into the jawbone in the hole from the former tooth root. The bone is then allowed to grow around the implant. Then a titanium post is attached to the implant and an artificial tooth is attached to the post. The false tooth then feels and functions exactly like the natural tooth that was there before. It stops the adjacent teeth from migrating, and it stimulates the jawbone just like a real tooth. Plus, caring for an implant is no different than caring for a natural tooth.

Now you know why you need to replace that missing tooth. Call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560 to schedule your next appointment.