If you are missing a tooth, you may think it’s no big deal, especially if it doesn’t show when you smile or talk. Well, think again! Teeth play a major role in your life, be it from making you look attractive to chewing food. However, loss of teeth can have several consequences like teeth shifting from their current position and bacteria accumulating under the gum line, resulting in diseases and loss of tissue. If left untreated, this can become infected resulting in swelling and discomfort.
Effects of missing teeth:
Effects on the bite and other teeth:
Just like the tyres of a car, your teeth are designed to function as a unit. Loss of one tooth or multiple teeth results in additional pressure coming onto the chewing surfaces of the other teeth as a result of which the other teeth tend to wear out faster leading to difficulties in chewing food and sensitivity.
Movement of other teeth:
Teeth are held into position by the other teeth besides it. When a tooth is missing, the adjacent teeth tend to move unevenly into its position. This is known as drifting of teeth and leads to the whole bite becoming unstable. Due to an unstable bite, it becomes difficult to chew food properly and can eventually affects the jaw joint resulting in headaches, neck pain and back pain.
Effect on the underlying bone:
The articulation of the jaw becomes more difficult while munching the food because the jaw does not detect the tooth which is missing and in turn, the tongue or the inner cheek is damaged due to the misaligned teeth. If you lose just one tooth, the gum and bone attached to the tooth starts to become less over time. Bone loss is one common fallout of missing teeth. The most common cause of bone loss is tooth loss left unreplaced, especially multiple teeth.
Replacing teeth with full or partial dentures doesn’t solve the problem as the dentures exert a very small amount of chewing pressure on the bone compared to natural teeth.
Food choices:
Each one of us has different choices of food. Most of the time the food is hard and needs a good munch. A missing tooth can be a disadvantage to have the best food choices as it becomes difficult to chomp the food. If food is not chewed properly, it can lead to lack of proper nutrients. Due to movement of teeth from their ideal position, chewing can cause pain for the person, causing them to eat less or eat different foods.
Missing teeth and lisp:
When the front teeth are missing, the airstream broadens. The airstream hits the back of the teeth or the dental wall and rebounds around until the air exits the mouth, creating strident or friction sound. This leads to a lisping sound while speaking and can be quite embarrassing
Makes you look older:
The normal process of teeth is from the age of 35 to 44 years old. As you grow older, your teeth experience wear and tear that could affect your overall health.
Loss of teeth makes the face look shorter and protrusion of the upper lip and chin makes the face look saggy and older, which is due to shrinkage in the upper and lower jaw bone. Replacing missing teeth will help retain the shape of your face. People who lose their teeth, whether one or more may experience effects in their health, which includes emotional health.
Dental treatments are known to be expensive and burn a hole in your pockets due to which people refrain from visiting a dentist. This causes their dental health to worsen over time. However in Goa, the costs for replacing missing teeth are cheaper compared to other countries like England, Spain, France and Germany. So if you’re thinking of visiting the dentist to replace missing teeth do consider visiting Smile Craft Goa. So book your appointment and get your treatment done because your smile is your identity.