How Do Missing Teeth Affect Your Health?

If you have missing teeth as an adult, it can have a profound effect on your overall health.

When you have missing teeth, enjoying your favorite foods can be something you actively avoid. Plus, it will affect your sense of self-worth and how often you smile. So when you have missing teeth, you’ll do almost anything to get rid of them. But if you know more about them, then you might be able to figure out the best way to deal with them.

Associated Problems

Here are some of the dental problems that are commonly associated with missing teeth:

1. Trouble chewing: When you have missing teeth, you will have trouble chewing. Eventually, you’ll feel unbearable amounts of pain while trying to chew. Ultimately, this will make you want to eat less and less often, and cause nutrition-related health problems, especially if you change your diet accordingly.
2. Your teeth shift: You teeth will shift to fill in the gaps. When teeth crowd together like this, it can cause many other problems for the patient. This could include your bite realigning, which is much more painful than it sounds. You’ll also run the risk of tooth decay and you will have a harder time brushing your teeth as well.
3. Trouble speaking: Believe it or not, missing teeth can affect how clearly you can speak, which will give you confidence issues just as much as what you look like could affect it.
4. Bone issues: The bones in your jaw supports your teeth. When you lose teeth, the bones react accordingly. Your face will shrink and the muscles will grow weaker.
5. Premature aging: Sadly, this effect will make you look older than you really are.
6. Mental health: Consequently, you could have anxiety, depression, and an overall dip in your confidence level.
7. Job issues: Confidence is a key component of getting more done at work or getting the job that you interviewed for, but missing teeth can put a damper on all of that.

How to Fix Them

One solution to fix missing teeth is to get some dental implants. Alternatively, you could get bridges, which are more effective when you only have a small handful of teeth missing. In the most urgent situations, you will need dentures. These are usually only used when the implants won’t help and can be extremely uncomfortable for the user.

You Can Trust Olney Dental for All of Your Dental Care Needs

For all of your oral care questions and concerns, Olney Dental has the expertise and professionalism to get them the answers they need. Olney Dental is ready to supply you with expert service in a professional environment. Schedule an appointment online today! For more information on how we can give your family the best dentist experience available, give us a call at (301) 250-1057 or contact us online. For more dental tips, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.