Dr. Nammy Patel of Green Dentistry talks about the options that patients have for tooth replacement.
For a tooth that’s lost, there’s several things you can do. One is to do nothing, which I don’t recommend. The other is to do a bridge. So you would shave down two teeth next to it and then make a bridge. Or the other option is an implant. And that’s what I actually recommend. An implant is like planting a tooth. It has a root just like a tooth does, and then has a crown on top. So that would be my ideal recommendation for a lost tooth.
Why should you not do nothing?
Well, you should not do nothing because if you have a tooth that’s missing, there’s an empty space and then you’ll have teeth around it. So what it’ll do is the other teeth will tip. The other thing is, especially for women, we want to make sure we look good. If you’re missing a tooth in the back the bone is going to start eating itself away. So if the bone starts eating as itself away, you’ll realize your facial profile changes and we want these nice high cheek bones.