How Dental Implants Improve Your Oral Health

If you’ve lost a tooth — or even a full arch of teeth — you have a few choices for filling in your smile. You can choose dentures or dental bridges, but another option stands out in a few ways.

Dental implants are replacement teeth designed to look, feel, and function just like your natural teeth. In the words of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), this improves your quality of life. And with proper care and good oral hygiene, the dental implant should last your lifetime. 

On top of all of those benefits, this type of replacement tooth can also help keep your mouth healthier. 

For all of these reasons, Thomas D. Sokoly, DDS, offers dental implants here at Sokoly Dental in Washington, DC.

Here, we share a few ways this type of replacement tooth can improve your oral health. 

A healthier jawbone

Each time you bite, the roots of your teeth stimulate your jawbone, encouraging it to stay strong and healthy. As a result, leaving a gap where that tooth root used to be can contribute to bone loss. Over time, this jawbone atrophy can even change the shape of your face. 

Fortunately, when you choose a dental implant, this problem evaporates. The dental implant gets rooted in your jawbone just like a natural tooth. And that reduces your risk of bone loss. 

Better tooth alignment

If you leave the gap in your smile open, your other teeth can shift out of place. A dental implant stabilizes them, helping them stay in their current positions. Because it’s easier to clean in between straight teeth, this makes it simpler to maintain your oral health. 

Easier oral care

Dental implants make oral health maintenance easier in another way, too. They don’t require any special care. You can continue to brush and floss like normal, without any added tools or steps.  

This differs from dentures, which you must remove and clean a specific way, and dental bridges, which are difficult to floss around. 

Less risk than with other replacement teeth

When you choose a bridge, we have to remove a small portion of the neighboring tooth that will support the bridge. This allows the crown — to which the replacement tooth is attached — to fit over that supporting tooth. 

Dental implants, on the other hand, don’t affect the nearby teeth. This leaves you with as much enamel as possible. And since that hard outer coating protects your teeth, that helps prevent oral health problems. 

Dentures generally don’t affect neighboring teeth (if there are any), but they can take a toll on your soft tissue. Specifically, they can slide around your mouth, irritating your gums. 

In some cases, bacteria can even thrive on the dentures, potentially introducing infection into your mouth.

Long story short, dental implants can make it easier to maintain your oral health than other types of replacement teeth. If you want to explore whether or not this option’s right for you, call our Washington, DC, office or book your appointment online today.