In an ideal world, you get through life with all of your teeth intact, but life often has far different plans, which is why 178 million Americans are missing at least one tooth.
If you find yourself in a position where you’re exploring tooth-replacement options, the dental experts here at Willow Glen Dental Specialists want to make the case for dental implants.
There are several good reasons why nearly five million implants are placed each year in the United States, and we review them here.
One of the biggest reasons we recommend dental implants is that when you lose a tooth or have us extract a tooth, you lose much more than what you see above your gumline. Below your gumline, your roots are anchored in your jawbone, where bone constantly rebuilds and remodels to keep your tooth firmly in place.
When you lose the tooth and the roots, your body registers the loss and ceases to rebuild bone in your jaw where the tooth was located. And this happens quickly — within a year of the tooth loss, you lose as much as 50% of the alveolar bone width. Alveolar bone is the hard tissue that holds the tooth in your jaw.
With a dental implant, we place a metal post into your jaw where the roots were to encourage your body to rebuild bone. Your body responds and fuses the metal implant into place with new bone tissue.
In addition to preventing bone loss in your jaw, dental implants also offer superior stability over other tooth-replacement options. Since the implant is fused into position in your jaw, it provides the same stability as your tooth once did. With a dental implant, you can talk, chew, and smile with confidence knowing your replacement tooth is firmly in place.
For all intents and purposes, a dental implant mimics a natural tooth in almost every way, right down to the roots, so this replacement option lasts a very long time. In fact, the post should remain a part of your jaw long into the future.
Once we place the dental implant and it fuses into your jawbone, we attach a crown that looks exactly like your surrounding teeth. There’s no metal, just a ceramic or porcelain tooth that has the same coloring and texture as your natural teeth.
From form to function, dental implants are a great way to replace missing teeth and preserve your dental health.
To determine whether you’re a good candidate for a dental implant, please contact our office in San Jose, California, by calling 408-478-9081, or you can book an appointment with us online.
