There are millions of people across the country dealing with missing teeth. For seniors, about 26 percent of people age 70 and older have no more remaining teeth. But anyone can have a tooth fail or break. And our Royal Oak Michigan dental office is here to help. We have a number of ways to treat your dental emergencies and give you your smile back.

Having a missing tooth can ruin your smile, and missing multiple or all of your teeth makes it nearly impossible to eat the food you love. Today we want to show you three things you can do once you have a missing tooth or failing tooth. Of course, we’d love for you to keep your teeth forever, but that isn’t always possible. Sometimes teeth can break or maybe the tooth has an infection and has outlived its usefulness. Whatever the case, North Oaks Dental can care for your dental problems.

Here are 3 ways to deal with missing teeth.

  • 1. Do nothing.

This isn’t any dentist’s option for patients, but it’s something we mentioned because patients often decided NOT to replace their missing teeth. Obviously, the first problem is that your appearance chances drastically. Having missing teeth is an eyesore. Secondly, not fixing a missing tooth will cause the remaining teeth in your mouth to shift around.

If you are missing all of your teeth, or an entire arch of teeth, you’ll lose much of functionality with your bite. You won’t be able to eat much of the food you love.

  • 2. Use Bridges or Removable Dentures

Bridges have been used in dentistry for hundreds of years. The restoration is a series of crowns that literally bridge the gap created by the missing tooth. The bridge keeps the mouth functional for many years, but the downside is that we have to shave down teeth adjacent to the missing tooth to support the restoration.

If you have long gaps in your smile or are missing entire arches of teeth, removable dentures can replace those and provide some function back into your bite. Today’s dentures are extremely lifelike and long-lasting. We can give you partial dentures (for big gaps in your smile) or full dentures (for total tooth loss). While dentures look great, it’s important to know that functionality is still an issue. Studies have found that most denture wearers only have between 25 and 50 percent of the functionality that they had with their natural teeth. When the teeth are lost the jawbone will resorb. That’s one of the reasons it’s difficult to get a good fit with dentures.

  • 3. Replace Teeth With Dental Implants

Dental implants are hands-down the strongest tooth replacement option available to dentistry. They nearly match the power of your natural teeth and can last a lifetime with proper care. A dental implant is made from titanium, a material that naturally merges with bone. This is an important point because it means the implant is secure AND the jawbone will stay in one place. That means you can secure your new teeth and enjoy a more youthful smile. Because implants are nearly as strong as natural teeth, you can eat whatever you want again after your implant procedure.

We can place implants for single missing teeth or to restore entire arches of new teeth. The treatment does require oral surgery, but with 3D technology, we can place implants with a 98 percent success rate.

Schedule With Our Royal Oak Office Today

You can see that there is more than one way to deal with missing teeth. We have to consider your smile goals and budget. Some solutions like dental implants may be great for your smile but not possible with your budget. We’d love to meet with you to discuss your goals and needs. Give us a call today at 248-712-1522 to book a visit.