Our teeth play an important role for many daily functions including our appearance, speaking and eating. When they are missing, this function can be affected and may reduce our quality or life and self-confidence.
People may be missing teeth for a variety of reasons. Some people may not form or have all their teeth and others can be lost due to trauma, decay or gum disease. Modern dentistry allows an array of options to replace missing teeth:
Dental Implants
Implants can be used to replace single and multiple missing teeth. A titanium screw is placed into the jaw bone and a prosthetic crown is built onto this.The tooth remains in your mouth at all times and acts like a natural tooth.
Dental Bridge
A bridge is a prosthetic tooth which is cemented to adjacent teeth to replace a missing tooth. Sometimes this may involve placing crowns or “wings”onto the teeth either side of the missing tooth. Generally, this is only suitable when missing one or two teeth.
Dentures
Dentures can be made to replace some missing teeth (partial dentures) or a full arch of missing teeth (full dentures). They can be made of acrylic resin or metal with acrylic resin and are custom designed to your mouth to appear like natural teeth. Dentures are removable and it is recommended that your removes them at night to clean them and to leave them out while sleeping.
To see which option is best suited to replacing your missing tooth please make a time to visit one of our dentists who can discuss these options in more detail and tailored to your mouth.
