Reasons Your Dentist May Suggest A Dental Implant After An Extraction

If you are experiencing tooth pain, you may believe that one of your teeth needs to be extracted. If this is the case, your dentist may discuss the installation of a dental implant during a consultation concerning an extraction. Although you may feel that an implant is unnecessary, there are reasons that your dentist may be suggesting a dented implant. Here are a few of them:

Aesthetic Appeal

Your teeth do affect your appearance. Thus, if a tooth is extracted near the front of your mouth, it can affect the way that you look when you smile or speak. If you are conscious of your appearance, the gap left by the extraction may lower your confidence, especially as you communicate with others.

A dental implant can fill the gap from the lost tooth with a prosthetic tooth that is difficult to discern from your natural teeth. Once in place, a dental implant is completely secure and does not require any special treatment. You can care for it in the same manner that you do your natural teeth, and the appearance of your smile is effectively restored.

Place-holding for Adjacent Teeth

The tooth that is being extracted serves as a position-keeper for the teeth that are next to it. Without room to move from their position, the nearby teeth remain in their current place. However, once the gap from the extraction is present, the teeth have additional room to start to shift.

The shifting can give the teeth a crooked appearance. Although the migration of the teeth does not occur overnight, it can eventually take place and ruin the proper positioning of the teeth.

When a dental implant is installed, it replaces the extracted tooth and becomes a place keeper for nearby teeth just as the extracted natural tooth once was.

Longevity

A dental implant can last just as long as a natural tooth would. The implant screw is secured into the jawbone by the bone itself. In fact, during the healing process of the implant wound, the jawbone actually fuses or permanently connects with the dental implant. Even if the crown that tops the dental implant begins to wear away, the implant screw can remain firmly in place throughout the lifetime of the patient. It can even serve as a securing device for other tooth replacement devices, such as dental bridges and dentures.

To learn more advantages of receiving a dental implant after an extraction, consult with a local dentist like Ann L Ortega DDS.