If you have one or more teeth missing, then you may not need as many implants as you think. Not every missing tooth needs to have an implant beneath it, we can fit a bridge to a single implant on which we will place 2 or more crowns to replace adjoining teeth.
Although missing teeth from your smile is an obvious motivation to consider dental implants, the importance of replacing multiple missing back teeth (your molar teeth) cannot be under-stated.
Molars are the large multi-rooted teeth that are designed to do the hard work of chewing your food. They are your grinding and crunching teeth – the power-houses of your bite. When molar teeth have been lost, all of this chewing workload gets transferred to the single-rooted teeth at the front of your mouth. These front teeth are simply not designed to grind and crunch food in the way your molar teeth are, and these excess stresses on your front teeth can cause damage in the longer term.
If you are missing a number of teeth, they may either be replaced with individual implants (one for each missing tooth), or if they are adjacent, by joining two or more implants together. This latter option can make implant treatment more affordable when patients are missing many teeth.
When a number of teeth are missing, which might occur when previous crown and bridgework has failed or if somebody has been involved in a serious accident then dental implant can be used to support a number of teeth. When these teeth are linked together it is called a bridge. When a large number of teeth have been lost at the same time it may well be necessary to carry out a bone graft, to develop the site where a dental implant might later be installed.
You may want to consider multiple dental implants if you have one or more of the following conditions:
More than one tooth missing or failing
Dislike wearing a denture
You have a bridge that is starting to fail / has failed
You are having difficulty chewing food properly
You cannot eat what you want with confidence
You do not have enough teeth to support a bridge
You do not want teeth damaged by a bridge
If you are worried about any of the above - we can help! Book your FREE initial Implant consultation today!
