Why you need replacement roots as well as crowns

Teeth play several vital roles in our bodies. They are used to bite into and chew our food. They also play an important role in speech, and in non-verbal communication, forming the smile. When body parts don’t function as they should, it can be distressing, and so it’s important to find a replacement method that gives you back the full functionality of your teeth, for eating, talking and smiling.

Dental Implants in Guildford That’s why at Farnham Road Dental Practice in Guildford, we recommend dental implants. Dental implants are the only tooth replacement method that gives you new roots as well as crowns. Having roots to your replacement teeth makes a huge amount of difference to their functionality. If you were putting in a new tree, you wouldn’t expect it to function very well if it didn’t have roots, yet somehow, we think our replacement teeth should.

Why you need roots

Roots give stability, and you need a lot of that to be able to bite and chew. The average male chew carries a force of 97kg or 200lbs. Natural roots can withstand that and the fact that chewing isn’t just an up-and-down movement. Dentures, which rely on adherence to the gums, can only withstand about a quarter of that force, so even when they fit brilliantly, all sorts of great foods are off the menu, and you have to live mainly on soft foods. Bridges can cope with more force, but only because they are attached to neighbouring healthy teeth with crowns that require those teeth to be ground down. In effect, you have to give up two perfectly good teeth to replace one missing one.

Roots also play a vital role in the health of your jawbone. Without roots, the jawbone quickly starts to deteriorate in the area where the tooth is missing. It can lose 25% of its size and density in a year after tooth-loss. Lose enough teeth and you start to get that sunken-cheeked, pointy-chinned look that we associate with old age.

Because of this, we recommend that you come in for a consultation for dental implants in Guildford as soon as you can after losing a tooth, or before if your teeth are starting to fail.