If you’ve experienced tooth loss, you understand the struggles of missing teeth. Crisp apples, juicy steak, and crunchy peanuts become difficult to eat, as the gaps in your smile make breaking down foods more difficult. Additionally, any remaining teeth begin to shift in your mouth, causing a misalignment in your bite. However, one of the most significant consequences of tooth loss is bone resorption, or the loss of bone mass and volume. Natural teeth have tooth roots that extend into your jawbone, stimulating it when you bite or chew. Without stimulation, your jaw will shrink over time. Only dental implants prevent jawbone resorption, taking the place of your tooth roots and securing your smile. If you’re looking for dental implants in Springfield, MA, visit East Longmeadow Family Dental Center! Just one short drive away, we restore your ability to eat with innovative mini dental implants.
Restoring Missing Teeth After Bone Resorption
Jawbone loss not only significantly affects your facial structure and skin, but it also makes replacing your missing teeth much more difficult down the line. Traditional dentures rely on your jawbone for support and function. However, these restorations don’t replace your missing tooth roots, allowing your jaw to continue resorbing underneath the prosthesis.
As your jawbone shifts and your denture retains its rigid shape, you’ll likely experience loose dentures. Loose dentures have many unfortunate consequences, such as:
- Difficulties eating: To break down foods, you need a strong bite. Initially, traditional dentures provide a force strong enough to chew most foods, restoring your ability to eat! However, this fit won’t last, and floating dentures often lack the ability to chew certain foods. In some cases, loose dentures may result in a change of diet and nutrition among patients.
- Gum irritation: As loose dentures slide across your gums when you speak or eat, they often irritate the soft tissues. With irritation comes denture sores, which make wearing your prosthetic painful and challenging.
- Social isolation: Because loose dentures cause difficulties with eating and gum soreness, many patients stop wearing their dentures altogether. Without functioning teeth, patients often feel too embarrassed to attend family gatherings or spend time with friends. This can result in social isolation, which may worsen into feelings of sadness or depression.
Fortunately, using dental implants, we can both restore your smile and prevent bone resorption! With these titanium posts in place, you don’t have to worry about your dentures slipping out or causing irritation.
Providing Dental Implants for Patients in Springfield and Beyond
Dental implants are titanium screws we place in your jawbone to stabilize a restoration. These include crowns, bridges, or dentures, depending on your specific needs and how many teeth you’re missing.
At the procedural appointment, we’ll numb you with a local anesthetic, ensuring you remain comfortable. Then, we make an incision in your soft tissues and use a series of large drills to create a hole in your bone. Once we insert the implant body, we stitch your incision up to facilitate healing. Over 4 to 5 months, your implant stabilizes in your jaw to support an abutment, or connector piece. Once your final restoration is ready, we’ll secure it on your implant to replace your missing teeth and restore your smile!
While effective, this process requires an invasive procedure that may affect who is eligible. Older patients or those with pre-existing conditions may have a more difficult time healing from this procedure, as it involves an invasive placement method.
Additionally, those with minimal bone structure due to bone resorption may not be eligible without additional procedures like a bone graft. Due to the size of these implants, a sufficient amount of jawbone structure is necessary for their placement. Without ample jawbone, patients in Springfield and beyond may not be eligible for dental implants. Fortunately, East Longmeadow Family Dental Center has a solution!
Experience the Difference With Mini Dental Implants
Mini dental implants are the smaller, sleeker version of conventional implants, making them much more accessible. Due to their narrow diameter, individuals who have experienced bone resorption are often still eligible for mini implants, even without a bone graft!
The process is simple and minimally invasive, avoiding the need for incisions and large drills. Instead, we use a local anesthetic and create a small pilot hole in your gums and jawbone. Using the hole as a guide, we then gently screw the mini implant into place.
Remarkably, these implants have a unique threaded design that works similarly to a self-tapping screw. In combination with their minimally invasive procedure, this threaded design allows mini implans to immediately stabilize in your jawbone, supporting temporary restorations right after placement.
In just one appointment, patients in Springfield, MA, can restore their smiles with mini dental implant-supported restorations!
Need Dental Implants in Springfield, MA? Visit East Longmeadow Family Dental Center!
At East Longmeadow Family Dental Center, we recognize that living life with missing teeth can be challenging. Fortunately, we provide a solution to patients in Springfield and beyond with dental implants, which restore your smile and keep your jawbone healthy. For those with significant tooth loss, we recommend mini dental implants for the wonderful benefits they provide patients like you.
Book a free consultation with us today to experience the security of dental implants!
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