Do gaping holes in your smile from tooth loss have you considering dentures? For years, dentures were the only options for those suffering from lost teeth. However, dentures themselves can present their own unique set of problems.
The Drawbacks of Dentures
While dentures may look and function like real teeth, they aren’t truly a permanent solution to tooth loss. Their fragility makes it necessary to repair or replace them on a routine basis. Plus, can any solution be permanent when you have to remove it at will?
Yet perhaps the greatest drawback of dentures is that they don’t do anything to help reverse the effects of tooth loss. When you lose teeth, the underlying jaw bone begins to deteriorate. Over time, this deterioration can become so drastic that dentures can no longer be supported. Because there’s less bone for them to rest upon, your dentures could easily start to float in your mouth and even slip out when you’re talking or eating.
All-on-4® Implants: All of the Benefits, None of the Problems
Thankfully, advances in dental science have presented alternatives to dentures. Chief among these are All-on-4 implants. These amazing implants differ from dentures in the following ways:
- They remain permanently affixed: During the All-on-4 placement procedure, your oral surgeon places four titanium screws in both your upper and lower jaw bone. A set of permanent teeth is then affixed to these implants. You don’t have to constantly remove them like you would with dentures.
- You care for them like regular teeth: Not only are All-on-4® implants made to look and function like real teeth, but you care for them that way, as well. Simply brush and floss as you would real teeth – no special solutions or treatments are required.
- They’re built to last: If you maintain a good oral care routine and supplement that with regular visits to your oral surgeon to check the status of your implants, there’s no reason why they can’t last for years.
- They can reverse the effects of bone loss: The titanium implants used in the All-on-4® placement procedure not only fuse with your normal bone, but they also promote the growth of new, healthy bone in your jaw.
While dentures do allow you to overcome some of the problems inherent with tooth loss, it’s important that you also know that you do have other alternatives. All-on-4 implants are the closest thing that that you can get to real teeth, and they allow you to avoid some the challenges that dentures present. At Oral and Facial Surgeons of Arizona, we have helped countless people enjoy the benefits of these implants; you could be next.