How to Restore Your Smile After Losing a Tooth
The good news about modern dental treatment is that many of the common problems that used to devastate people’s smiles can now be effectively treated and managed with optimal results. This includes the loss of one or more teeth, which can potentially have several diminishing impacts on the overall state of your oral health. Today, people who experience tooth loss can successfully restore their smiles by precisely addressing the cause of their tooth loss and replacing the lost tooth with a highly lifelike dental prosthesis.
Treat the underlying problem, if necessary
There are different reasons why people experience tooth loss. Some teeth are lost because of severe accidental trauma that knocks them out of their sockets. Others may be severely damaged or knocked loose and need to be extracted before they’re lost on their own, and still others are lost because they no longer have enough support from your dental ridge. Depending on the cause of your tooth loss, restoring your smile might require addressing the underlying problem before you can successfully replace your lost tooth. For example, many people lose one or more teeth due to severe gum disease, which can continue to impact your oral tissues and structures if not addressed promptly.
Restoring the tooth’s presence and function
If a tooth is lost due to direct damage to its structure, then there may not be any underlying oral health problems to address when restoring your smile. If the cause is a chronic concern, such as gum disease, then replacing your tooth will occur after the problem is brought under control. The goal in replacing the lost tooth is restore its presence along your dental ridge and its role in your bite’s proper function. This requires a highly lifelike, precisely designed dental prosthesis, such as a dental bridge or dental implant and crown, to closely mimic the tooth’s size, shape, contour, and appearance.
Reestablishing the tooth’s supportive structure
Replacing the visible part of your tooth can help restore the tooth’s presence above your gum line. However, the root of your tooth that rests beneath it and within your jawbone structure is an important part of the tooth’s strength and integrity. For many people, the most effective way to restore their smiles after tooth loss is to replace the tooth with a dental implant, which is a small post that replaces the root of your lost tooth. By securing a custom-designed dental crown to the implant after it’s been placed, your dentist can create a more lifelike root-and-crown replacement for your lost tooth.
Learn more about recovering from tooth loss
After experiencing tooth loss, restoring your smile and good oral health might require more than just replacing the tooth. To learn more, call our Cleveland Family Dentistry office in Cleveland, TX, today at (281) 592-1234.