4 Reasons Why You Should Replace a Missing Tooth

While people are usually meant to have 32 teeth, due to our modern diets and a number of other factors we normally don’t have room for our wisdom teeth, so they are removed. It’s rare that these teeth need to be replaced, but all the other 28 teeth are essential for adult oral health.

Here are some of the reasons you should get a missing tooth replaced as soon as possible:

1. Loss of Eating Ability

Missing a tooth means you lose some ability to chew food properly. In fact, for each missing tooth, you lose about ten percent of your mastication abilities. This places more stress on the other teeth and inhibits your ability to chew and digest food properly, which can lead to digestive problems and malnutrition.

2. Improve your Airway

Losing teeth can cause the mouth to become narrow and close over, which impairs your ability to breathe properly due to the airway collapsing. Replacing those missing teeth can significantly improve your breathing – and by extension your general health.

3. Get Rid of Headaches and Facial Pain

A lack of proper dental bite means you have an increased chance of jaw pain and dysfunction. It can also lead to headaches, facial pain and upper neck pain due to the lack of proper dental support. Replacing missing teeth can help to alleviate these aches and pains, leaving you feeling healthier.

4. Loss of Gum Integrity

If a lost tooth isn’t replaced for a long period of time, the teeth adjacent to the empty spot will begin to shift and tilt to fill the gap. This can leave them more prone to tooth decay, as teeth that are misaligned are far more difficult to keep clean.

As well as this, the partner tooth on the other jaw will begin to grow longer to fill the gap left by the missing tooth, which can reduce the tooth’s attachment with the jaw and leave its root exposed and more prone to decay.

Losing a tooth can be serious. More than just a cosmetic problem, it can lead to a host of health issues and can even make you vulnerable to losing more teeth. The longer you wait after losing a tooth, the more difficult and costly it will become to replace.

It is almost always a good idea to replace a missing tooth as soon as possible. If you have a missing tooth or other oral health concerns, please give us a call.