TREATMENTS
Options For Missing Teeth
There are a number of options available if you have single or multiple missing teeth, or if you have no teeth, and would like a more permanent and natural looking alternative.
Take a look at our video and to see which option is best for you and your lifestyle.
To do nothing – accepting a gap can be an aesthetic problem, and it can also restrict what you can eat. Inevitably, there will increased forces on the remaining teeth, as they will have more work to do when chewing, which could lead to more problems and further tooth loss. It would also mean the adjacent teeth will tilt and move into the available space.
To replace the missing teeth with a removable denture – this will affect your eating and speech due to the bulkiness and instability of the denture, rocking in the mouth. The denture must also be taken out after eating (to clean) and must be removed overnight when asleep. It also wraps around the remaining teeth, leading to a higher risk of bacterial build up which will cause decay and gum disease. The denture will also compress the gum and the bone, which will result in recession of the gums and shrinkage of the bone.
A bridge – this is a tooth replacement option that involves fixing a prosthetic tooth to the adjacent teeth. Good, firm teeth would obviously need to be present either side of the gap in the first instance, and would often mean grinding these teeth down in order to attach the replacement tooth. This is obviously damaging to the supporting teeth and can lead to problems long term.
The dental implant – this is a fixed option that is independent from adjacent teeth, the prosthetic tooth comes through the gum, very much like a natural tooth.