One of the best ways to maintain a youthful appearance is to take good care of your pearly whites. A beautiful, white smile is a hallmark of youth. Loss of teeth, on the other hand, is more often connected with extreme old age, as is the sunken, gum-sucking appearance that can follow.
Unfortunately, tooth loss isn’t always related to aging. Even with proper oral care, including at-home hygiene and regular dental visits, it’s possible that you could lose teeth as a young adult or in middle age, such as with trauma from a sporting injury or accident of some sort. This can cause you to look old before your time if you don’t act to correct it.
What can you do to prevent the signs of aging when you lose one or more teeth? Your best bet may be dental implants.
Complete Your Smile
A missing tooth (or several) won’t do much for your appearance, and giant gaps where teeth used to be are bound to make you look older. Dental implants are the best possible way to replace a lost tooth and complete your smile.
Implants consist of a titanium screw in your jaw that bonds with the bone to form a sturdy base for the crown on top. The crown itself acts like a natural tooth – you can eat, drink, and even brush and floss just as you would with a natural tooth. It also helps to preserve the structure of your mouth and your natural bite. In other words, it’s the next best thing to getting your original tooth back.
Avoid Bone Loss and Sunken Skin
When you lose a tooth, a cascade of subsequent issues can occur. Without a tooth in place for the jaw bone to support, bone deterioration can begin to occur. When this happens, surrounding teeth can start to move and lean into the gap, causing misalignment and bite issues. In addition, the skin covering the area, be it the cheeks or lips, can sink into the hollow.
This, in turn, can cause premature aging. A dental implant prevents all of these problems from occurring in ways that other options, such as bridgework or dentures, cannot. While these treatments can complete your smile and keep teeth from moving, they won’t prevent bone loss.
Maintain Oral Health
Because you can brush, floss, and rinse as usual with dental implants, it’s going to be easier to maintain oral health and a beautiful smile. In addition, implants fit snugly in the gum line to prevent the intrusion of bacteria. All of this will help to preserve your youthful appearance following tooth loss.