Your Wisdom Teeth Questions AnsweredYour Wisdom Teeth Questions Answered

If you have missing teeth and aren't concerned about having a gap, it might alarm you to know that having missing teeth could harm your overall oral health. By not doing anything to replace your missing teeth, you could increase your risk of losing more teeth, developing gum disease, and even experiencing a change in your physical appearance. Read on to learn more about why getting a set of partial dentures is so important if you're missing teeth.

The Risks You're Facing

If you have multiple teeth missing and don't get a set of partial dentures, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise.

When your teeth fall out and nothing is put in their place, you lose a key factor that's important to oral health: pressure. When you bite down on teeth, that pressure keeps your gums and jaw healthy. Without it, both can weaken as a result.

If you don't have pressure equally applied to your entire gum line, your gums will experience reduced circulation. This could increase your risk of developing gum disease, as adequate blood flow is necessary to reduce inflammation that can cause gum disease.

Furthermore, without that added circulation, your surrounding gum tissues may not adequately support your remaining teeth and could cause other teeth to fall out over time as a result.

Lastly, pressure is necessary in order to keep your jaw strong and healthy. Gentle pressure applied to bone encourages bone to rebuild itself, but when that pressure is absent, bone can weaken. This is why many older people with missing teeth have weaker-looking jawlines than young, healthy people.

How Dentures Can Help

Simply by having a set of partial dentures to take up space where your teeth used to be can help your overall oral health. When you bite and the dentures press down on your gums, it will encourage blood flow to circulate more readily through your gums. The pressure will also help to keep your jaw bone strong, which will support surrounding teeth and help to maintain your overall facial appearance.

Even if you think you don't need a set of partial dentures because you haven't experienced any difficulty eating, chewing, or talking with missing teeth, you're doing your oral health a disservice. Partial dentures can help to keep your gums, teeth, and jaw healthy when you've lost multiple teeth. Talk to your dentist today about having a set of partial dentures fabricated to help protect your oral health. Click here to read more!