Besides leaving a gap in your smile, a missing tooth can cause a host of health issues for your mouth. Luckily, dental implants in Newton offer an excellent solution that can help improve the appearance of your teeth and at the same time aid in your overall dental health.

Retain Jaw and Facial Structure

The natural design of your mouth nestles the tooth and its root into the jaw bone, and when a person suffers the loss of a tooth, it leaves a recess in the jaw. Unfortunately, this hole can lead to a natural process called bone reabsorption. This occurs when the body senses that the jaw bone material is no longer doing the work of holding a tooth in place and providing it with blood flow and nutrients. To conserve materials, the body begins to reabsorb the bone in the area around the missing tooth, a process that can lead to a weakened jaw and the loss of facial structure. Dental implants can prevent this by filling the space of your original tooth and stimulating the jaw to grow around and integrate with the implant.

Ensure Better Oral Health

When a tooth is lost and not replaced, issues besides bone loss can occur. Each of your teeth plays a role in keeping the rest of them in their proper place in your mouth. When a gap is left in your smile, there is often nothing preventing the neighboring teeth from drifting, a process that can lead to crooked teeth and misalignment. Teeth that begin drifting and creating more gaps can cause reduced chewing efficiency and food accumulation, and this state of compromised dental health can snowball into periodontal disease, cavities, and the loss of additional teeth. Dental implants are metal posts which are anchored into the jaw and provide a site to which a dental crown or prosthetic can be attached. By filling the hole in the jaw as well as the gap between the teeth, dental implants can prevent your remaining teeth from drifting and causing additional problems for your oral health.