Tooth loss is a serious oral health issue that affects your entire life. Simple tasks that you once did without even thinking, such as eating and speaking, suddenly become a major challenge. Your smile is diminished, and your confidence falls. Under the gum line, tooth loss has serious implications for the health of your jawbone. Without your teeth, even just one, the bone where the teeth used to begins to resorb and grow weak. Over time, the bone begins to change shape and your teeth begin to shift out of natural alignment.
Dental implants are a relatively recent, revolutionary treatment designed to replace missing teeth, and they have a whole host of benefits. One of the biggest benefits of dental implants is that they stop the bone loss that follows tooth loss, helping you to maintain the strength of your jawbone. However, because implants rely on the fusion of your bone to the titanium rods, you need to have sufficient bone mass remaining. Too much bone loss does not automatically render you ineligible. At Nicholas Dose, DMD Family Dental Care, we can restore missing bone mass, making dental implants possible, with bone grafting.