Rear Teeth Dental Implants

Just because a gap caused by a missing tooth can’t be seen, doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.

When a highly visible tooth is lost, such as a front tooth; there are few of us who would not look at the available options to replace it. When the tooth is well hidden though, such as in the case of rear teeth, some of us may be tempted to ignore it on the grounds that no one will notice.

This approach though has many pitfalls, which our Derby implant dentist discusses below.

Facial support

An often ignored fact is that our rear teeth are key in supporting our cheeks. By leaving a gap in that area, our face loses some of its height and the cheeks then start to ‘collapse’ leaving the person with sunken cheeks. This has an ageing effect, as, with the collapse of the cheeks comes increased facial wrinkles and folds.

Nutrition

Although not highly visible, our rear teeth are critical in chewing and tearing our food. Because most of us have a varied diet which includes “tougher” foods such as meat as well as softer fruit and vegetables, this chewing and tearing action is important in helping us attain maximum nutrition as well as enjoying what we eat.

Another potential problem is that we may start to rely on our front teeth to chew; however, they are not really designed to do this and may suffer damage in the process.

Misalignment and jaw issues

Whilst we may consider our teeth to be individual items, they still work together and changes to one part of the mouth can easily affect another. When any tooth is lost, including our rear teeth, others will gradually move into the space left by the missing tooth. Other teeth will then encroach into that space, and so forth resulting in misalignment and potential jaw problems.

Replacement options

Whilst many people turn to dentures to replace missing teeth, this may not be the best choice for a number of reasons. Apart from the fact that many wearers find them uncomfortable and still don’t enable them to eat all the foods that they would like, they also fail to prevent bone loss in the area where the tooth was lost. Having a dental implant placed at our Derby implant centre, will help to prevent further bone loss and allow the patient to have a fully functional replacement tooth with all of the benefits that a natural tooth would bring.

If you are uncertain of the options available to replace missing teeth, we are very happy to discuss this with you. Simply arrange a consultation at the Darren Bywater Dental Implant Centre by calling us on 01332 550933.

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