One of the top three reasons people lose teeth is because of tooth decay. This is because tooth decay can affect anyone. If you are failing to properly maintain your teeth, then tooth decay is a very real threat that can drastically affect your oral health. Should tooth decay escalate to the point where a tooth will need to be removed, a dental implant can be used to return your smile to a point where you won’t be able to help but want to show it off. Today, Dr. Altschuler is blogging from Gainesville, FL to talk about tooth decay and how dental implants can be used to reverse the damage done by it.
Restore Your Smile with Dental Implants
The most common cause of tooth decay is a failure to keep your teeth clean. Every day, plaque forms on our teeth. It is primarily for this reason that we brush and floss our teeth every night. This is because if plaque is left alone long enough, it creates acids that will proceed to eat away at your teeth. It is this process specifically that is referred to as tooth decay. Some common symptoms of tooth decay include chronic bad breath, off color spots on your teeth, and toothaches. If tooth decay is not taken care of quickly, it can spread around your mouth and compromise your remaining natural teeth.
If a tooth compromised by tooth decay is removed, this doesn’t mean that the fight is necessarily over. The empty spot left behind by the removed tooth can lead to even more tooth decay. This is because it is possible for the teeth surrounding the lost tooth to begin leaning into or moving into these empty spots. This is called tooth drifting, and it can be a problem because these drifted teeth tend to end up in positions that make them hard to clean properly. As we have already learned, this failure to properly maintain your teeth can result in tooth decay.
Fortunately, if you lose a tooth because of tooth decay, it is possible to restore it with a dental implant. Dental implants are artificial tooth roots that are made from titanium. Through a process called osseointegration, your dental implant is accepted by our jawbone and gums as a natural piece of your oral anatomy. This process is only possible because titanium is a metal that the body doesn’t recognize as a foreign material. Because of this process, your dental implant will work and feel just like one of your natural teeth.