I’m a stuntman by trade. Lately, I seem to be losing more teeth than usual. I’ve been losing one a year. I don’t know if dental implants will help that or if I should get a dental bridge. But, that’s a lot of teeth to grind down unnecessarily. What do you think? Will dental implants hold up?
Carl
Dear Carl,
I’m sorry you’re having such bad luck with your teeth. I don’t know if that’s common to your particular field or if you’re just in an unusual spate right now. If it’s unusual, the first thing I’d do is talk to your dentist and see if you can figure out if there is something else contributing to your tooth loss. At a rate of a tooth a year, it won’t be long before you’ll be in serious danger of facial collapse.
One of the leading contributors to teeth coming out early is gum disease. If you’re suffering from that, treating that is your priority. You won’t be a candidate for dental implants while having gum disease anyway.
If it’s a matter of just being unlucky at the moment, I’d make sure you’re wearing some type of mouthguard. This will give your teeth a bit of a buffer when things are going wrong.
Will Dental Implants Hold Up?
Before we go into dental implants, I want to address your comment about a dental bridge. When you’ve lost a lot of teeth, it’s not really a great option. If the teeth are all in the same area, you would need quite a large bridge. If one part of it breaks, the whole thing has to be replaced. It’s a better option when you’re missing a single tooth.
But, you’re missing several teeth. If they’re all in different places, you will have to crown two adjacent teeth for each false tooth. You were right in being concerned about grinding down healthy tooth structure.
While dental implants are a fantastic tooth replacement and they’re as stable as your natural teeth, they are only as stable as your natural teeth. This is another reason to wear a mouth guard and address the root cause.
Who Should Place Your Dental Implants?
You don’t want just any dentist placing your implants. Look for two particular skill sets, both of which require post-doctoral work to be significant enough to make a difference. The first is training in reconstructive dentistry. The second is training in cosmetic dentistry. It isn’t encouraging to replace your teeth but to end up with an ugly replacement.
This blog is brought to you by New Orleans Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Duane Delaune.