For most people, dental care generally means taking good, consistent care of their teeth by keeping them clean and free of things like tooth decay. Doing so is meant to help improve your chances of preserving your healthy, natural teeth for life and avoiding the need to replace one or more of them. However, if you do experience tooth loss, then your dental care will still revolve around preserving your smile, though this may require replacing the tooth as soon as possible with a highly lifelike prosthesis.

Dealing with cause of your tooth loss

One of the most immediate and important goals of dental treatment after you’ve experienced tooth loss is dealing with the reason why you lost a tooth in the first place. For many people, this involves a chronic oral health concern, like gum disease, that progressively gets worse until conditions lead to the loss or extraction of a tooth. If this is your concern, as well, then treating gum disease will be essential to ensuring that it doesn’t lead to further tooth loss, or compromise the integrity of your tooth replacement.

Dealing with the loss of your natural teeth

Once the underlying cause of your tooth loss is dealt with, the next most important concern is the loss of your natural tooth structure and how that can impact your oral health. The effects of tooth loss are many, and not all of them are immediately obvious. For instance, in addition to how your smile looks without all of your natural teeth, there’s also the impact to your bite’s balance when you bite and chew. Restoring your smile’s appearance and proper bite function requires a custom-designed prosthesis, such as a dental bridge, to fill the space in your smile with a highly lifelike tooth replacement.

Dealing with the loss of your healthy teeth roots

The loss of the visible structures of your teeth can be addressed with a conventional dental bridge or denture, but the loss of your teeth roots creates an additional set of circumstances that must be addressed to properly preserve your smile. The loss of your teeth roots results in a loss of stimulation in your jawbone, and over time, this can cause the bone structure to resorb and lose mass and density. Preventing this is possible with the help of a dental implant post, which can replace your lost tooth root and support a custom-made dental crown to replace your tooth in lieu of a traditional dental bridge.

Learn how to restore your smile after tooth loss

After experiencing tooth loss, your immediate and long-term dental health care will focus on preserving the rest of your healthy smile as much as possible. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, call Cedar Dental in Cedar Rapids, IA, today at (319) 364-7108.