Tooth Loss & Your Health

Over half of all Americans are missing at least one tooth. In addition to hurting your self-esteem, living with missing teeth will also damage your health. And it doesn’t just harm your oral health — it also threatens your overall wellbeing.

Natural-looking dental implants are the only restoration that actively counteracts the damage caused by missing teeth. By keeping your remaining teeth aligned and stimulating healthy jawbone growth, implants help protect you from major health risks associated with tooth loss.

Preventing Additional Tooth Loss

In a healthy smile, all the teeth work together to keep one another in place. When you lose a tooth, your remaining teeth will begin to shift position. As your teeth shift around in your jawbone, they irritate your gums, leaving you more susceptible to gum disease. This is a dangerous infection that can cause you to lose even more teeth.

As your teeth shift position, they also create spaces where it’s difficult to clean, allowing plaque and tartar to accumulate. Unfortunately, plaque and tartar feed the bacteria that cause gum disease. That’s why losing a tooth can create a chain of events that leads to additional problems.

Tooth Loss & Gum Disease

Gum disease is a bacterial infection that will wreak havoc on your smile when left untreated. In its early stages, the symptoms of gum disease include sore, red, and swollen gums and bleeding when you brush and floss.

As the condition worsens, the symptoms become much more severe. These symptoms include large pockets of infection around the base of your teeth, bad breath, loose teeth, and pain while chewing. If you don’t get treatment for your gum disease in a timely manner, it can cause your remaining teeth to fall out.

Fortunately, Dr. Kontos provides effective remedies for all stages of gum disease. But the sooner you see us about your gum disease, the easier it is to treat.

How Gum Disease Threatens Your Health

Gum disease doesn’t just devastate healthy smiles — it also damages your overall health. There have been a number of recent scientific studies linking gum disease to dangerous medical conditions.

Gum disease causes inflammation of your blood vessels, allowing bacteria to spread throughout your body. Research links gum disease to the following medical issues:

• Strokes
• Heart Disease
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Osteoporosis
• Premature Childbirth
• Diabetes