Blog

Certain things are meant to roam: goat herders, grizzly bears, Jack Kerouac. But don’t count your teeth among them. Your teeth need to stay put, and that’s why leaving a missing tooth or two missing isn’t the best idea for your dental health.

Maybe you knocked out a tooth during a winter pond hockey game emulating Gordie Howe. Maybe you cracked a tooth eating, had it pulled, and then never replaced it. Maybe a tooth had so much decay that it had to be pulled, and due to the cost you never replaced it.

Well, you’re in good company — 178 million Americans are missing at least one tooth. Holy enamel, Batman!

And what’s the big deal anyway? It’s just a missing tooth, right? Dr. Egger would like you to know that it’s not really just a missing tooth; there’s more to it when it comes to your dental health.

Let the wildebeest migrate, not your teeth
Don’t think that wildebeest 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 messes up the alignment of your teeth, your bite, and it could even impact what you are able to eat.

Jawbone erosion
Jawbone erosion is another possible consequence of tooth loss. This is because your teeth play a big part in the health of the jawbone beneath them. 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
While you could replace the missing tooth or teeth with a bridge, dental implants are 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 re-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.

So, while there are things that should remain missing, i.e. Sasquatch and the Ghost of Blackbeard, you should replace missing teeth. Call Dr. Egger at 989-773-3560 to schedule your appointment.