Can Dental Implants Make My Smile Look Younger?

Human teeth go through a lot of stress over their lifetimes, and decades of wear and tear can leave marks that are especially noticeable at later ages. Issues like dental damage, gum disease, and years of smoking or excessive alcohol use can lead to tooth loss and leave a patient with a more elderly appearance. Thankfully, dental implants can be an excellent way to restore your smile and your confidence at any age. Here’s a brief guide to how these modern dental restorations can help you look younger.

How Can Tooth Loss Make Me Look Older?

The wear and tear the teeth experience accumulate over time, and this leads to seniors being more likely to have missing teeth than younger people. Years of exposure to sugary and acidic foods and beverages as well as bad habits like poor oral hygiene, smoking, and immoderate alcohol use can cause serious dental damage and lead to tooth loss. Seniors also have a higher rate of gum disease and tooth loss because many of them deal with health issues like arthritis or depression that make it difficult to practice proper oral hygiene.

While tooth loss does enough to diminish the appearance of a smile on its own, it also deprives the jaw of the stimulation it needs to stay healthy and strong, which results in the bone structure that supported the lost tooth atrophying and receding as time goes on. This loss of bone mass can also pull adjacent teeth out of alignment, leaving them harder to clean and more vulnerable to injury, infection, and loss. As more teeth are lost, the recession of the jawbones can leave the mouth with a sunken, withered, and elderly appearance.

How Can Dental Implants Make Me Look Younger?

Dental implants are the best form of tooth replacement because they look, feel, and function just like real teeth and casual observers cannot distinguish between them and natural pearly whites. Almost any adult with missing teeth and healthy gums and jawbones can receive dental implants, and most people who are not found to be good candidates during their initial consultation can receive them later after undergoing preliminary procedures like bone grafting or gum disease therapy.

While dental implants can give a patient a younger appearance by replacing lost teeth and completing their smile, they also have the remarkable ability to prevent or reverse the bone erosion in the jaw caused by tooth loss. Since dental implants are surgically placed directly into the jaw and fused with their surrounding bone structure through the natural process of osseointegration, they provide the jawbone with the exercise it needs to stay healthy and maintain its shape. This can help preserve the patient’s appearance and their oral and overall health by preventing further tooth loss.

Placing dental implants involves a special multi-step process that takes place over several months, but these appliances can look great and work well for a lifetime if they receive proper care. Consulting with your dentist can help you determine if implants are the best tooth replacement option for you.

About the Practice

Souris Valley Dental Group offers exemplary modern dental services to the Minot community. Led by Drs. Mark Hildahl, Jerick Hensen, Grant Neil, Kevin Brodersen, and Joanna Brekhus, the staff sees to each patient receiving outstanding customer care in a clean and welcoming office. The practice offers general, pediatric, cosmetic, restorative, and emergency dentistry as well as dental implant services. To book your dental implant consultation, contact the office online or dial (701) 852-5595.