When you look at some people with dentures, you can tell those aren’t their real teeth. Sometimes the tops of the dentures are not in line with the rest of the teeth. Sometimes, the denture clicks, or you see the person moving their teeth around. Sometimes they are too perfect and white and even to be real teeth in a person that age.

Now you need to replace some teeth. How are you going to do it? Are you going to go down the denture route? Or maybe you are thinking about fixed bridgework? Or perhaps you are more inclined toward dental implants.

All 3 methods of replacing teeth have their pros and cons, but, when it comes to looking after the rest of your teeth and the health of your jaws and gums, at Orpington Dental Care in Orpington, we think that dental implants tick more boxes.

About your jaw

One of the things that ages people is a shrunken jawbone. The bone loses size and density, and, eventually the chin seems to be closer to the tip of the nose. This is what people draw when they want to do cartoons of witches: the big nose, the pointy chin. It’s not actually old age that causes that look, it’s lack of teeth.

Without your teeth, your jawbone starts to dissolve itself, thinking it is no longer needed because there are no vibrations coming down through the roots to tell it otherwise.

Dental implants are the only way to replace lost tooth roots and prevent this from happening.

The rest of your teeth

It’s not a good idea to live with gaps for too long as the surrounding teeth can start to tip into the gap and eventually fall out. However, if you replace the lost teeth with fixed bridgework, it will require the loss of 2 more teeth, one on either side of the gap. These have to be ground down into pegs onto which buttress crowns for the bridge are fitted. With dental implants, the crowns are anchored into the jaw on their own posts, so there’s no need to sacrifice healthy teeth.

To find out more, why not come in for a consultation?