The Consequences of Tooth Loss

Whether it is caused by years of tooth decay or a sudden injury, losing a tooth can be a very stressful event. Luckily, modern dental technology allows your dentist in Cape Coral, FL to reattach, or replace your tooth effectively, and repair your smile. Today there are a number of effective options available to your dentist to help achieve a restored smile. If you are in need of a tooth replacement procedure, talk to your Cape Coral, FL dentist today.

What are the Consequences of Missing Teeth?

The bone that supports your teeth and facial structure begins to deteriorate when a tooth is lost. Gaps in your teeth become an ideal place for foods to get trapped, increasing your rick for tooth decay and gum disease. The neighboring teeth may shift into the gaps where your missing teeth once were, creating a misaligned bite and affecting your jaw movement. As a result, normal every day functions, like eating, chewing and speaking become frustrating and challenging.

Tooth loss can occur for various reasons including neglecting your teeth and gums with a poor diet and poor oral hygiene.  Additionally, teeth can be lost because of:

• Tooth decay
• Root canal failure
• Gum disease
• Trauma to the mouth
• Excessive wear and tear

Replacing your missing teeth as soon as they are lost is the best way to prevent serious health problems caused by tooth loss. Delaying the restoration process will only limit the possibility for a successful tooth replacement in the future. Your oral health influences your overall health. Teeth not only allow you to speak and chew properly, but they also have an influence on your self-esteem. Several or a whole mouth of missing teeth can give you a feeling of embarrassment and self-consciousness.

By visiting your Cape Coral, FL dentist, you can successfully restore your smile.  Your dentist will provide a proper diagnosis, in addition to an appropriate treatment plan for your missing teeth.  Whether you are a candidate for dental implants, dentures or dental bridges, your dentist in Cape Coral, FL will create the best treatment plan for your smile restoration. Visit our office today for more information.

Visiting your dentist in Cape Coral, FL for regular check ups and cleanings can help to prevent many dental problems.  These visits are also essential for helping you maintain a healthy, glowing smile.  Don’t wait until your tooth aches to visit your dentist, schedule a routine check up now.

Some reasons to visit your Cape Coral, FL dentist include:

• To prevent gum disease. Gum disease is one of the leading causes of adult tooth loss.  If diagnosed in its early stages, gum disease can be easily treated and reversed.  However, if you wait for treatment, gum disease will advance to a more serious stage called periodontitis.  

• To prevent oral cancer. The Oral Cancer Foundation informs us that someone dies of oral cancer every hour of every day in the United States alone—that’s a lot. Visiting your dentist in Cape Coral will help you to prevent this deadly disease because as your teeth are cleaned, your dentist will also perform an oral cancer screening.

• To prevent tooth loss. Gum disease is one of the leading causes of tooth loss in adults, which means regular visits are vital to keeping your teeth.  Your dentist will help clean your teeth and make sure gum disease is kept at bay.

• To prevent dental emergencies. Most toothaches and dental emergencies can be easily avoided just by regular visits to your dentist.  Your dentist maintains the ability to detect any early signs of problems with your teeth and gums, which helps to prevent emergencies later on.  However, if you do encounter an emergency due to an injury, etc. then your dentist is available for emergency visits, as well.

Take the next step toward optimal oral health by visiting your dentist in Cape Coral, FL at least twice a year.  Your dentist can also inform you of important times to visit their office for further care in the maintenance of your smile.

Preventing and Treating Cavities

Your lifestyle heavily influences the health of your teeth.  What you eat, how well you take care of your teeth and many more choices are what can affect your teeth the most.  Heredity can also play a role in how susceptible your teeth may be to decay. 

While cavities are generally more common among children, adults are also at risk.  With proper dental hygiene and prevention, you can lower your risk of getting a cavity or tooth decay.  Cavities are very serious and if left untreated, can destroy your tooth and kill the delicate nerves at its center.  By visiting Gulf Coast Smiles you can take charge of your smile and protect your teeth from cavities.

Cavity Prevention

By following a number of tips from your dentist in Cape Coral you can prevent cavities from forming.  Brush at least twice a day and floss daily to remove plaque from between your teeth and below the gum line.  Regular dental checkups are vital in maintaining proper dental hygiene as well because it is only your dentist who can diagnose a cavity.  Preventative care from your dentist can help stop problems from occurring and keep minor problems from becoming major ones. 

Additionally, eat a well- balanced diet by limiting starchy or sugary foods.  When you do eat sugary or starchy foods, try to eat them with your meal and not as a snack.  This will minimize the number of times your teeth are exposed to acid. 

Treatment for a Cavity

If you get a cavity, treatment from your Cape Coral dentist can help to prevent tooth damage from worsening.  Treatment for a cavity may involve fillings, crowns or root canals.  Dentists fill teeth by removing the decayed tooth material with a drill and replace it with material such as porcelain or composite resin.  Porcelain and composite resin match the natural tooth appearance better and may be preferred for your front teeth. 

Crowns or caps are used if the decay is extensive and there is limited tooth structure.  A root canal is recommended if the nerve in a tooth dies from decay or injury.  Only your dentist can tell for sure if you do have a cavity because cavities develop below the tooth’s surface where you can’t see them. 

Visit Gulf Coast Smiles twice a year for regular checkups to ensure the health of your teeth, and to prevent and treat cavities.

Restore Your Natural Smile with Crowns and Bridges

In the past, if you had a broke, chipped or missing tooth your options were always minimal.  With advancements in dentistry, your dentist in Cape Coral, FL can now provide you with improved treatments to restore your natural smile.  Two of the most popular procedures for restoring your smile are the installation of dental crowns or dental bridges. By visiting Gulf Coast Smiles, we can help you restore your smile once and for all.

A dental crown is a tooth-shaped cap that is placed over your damaged tooth to restore its size, shape, strength and appearance. A crown can be used to cover a misshapen or discolored tooth, protect a weak one, restore a broken or chipped tooth, or to support a dental bridge. Once the crown is installed, it will completely cover the visible portion of your tooth above the gum line.

While dental crowns are designed to restore teeth that are misshapen, discolored, chipped or broken, a dental bridge is designed to help replace a missing tooth. A dental bridge is made up of an artificial tooth, or teeth, that is anchored on either side by crowns.  To install a bridge, your Cape Coral dentist will begin by anesthetizing the area around the bridge and then filing down the two teeth that will receive crowns. Next, he or she will take an impression and send it to a dental lab, where your permanent bridge will be constructed in two to three weeks.

If you have a damaged or missing tooth, contact Gulf Coast Smiles for further diagnosis and treatment planning.  With help from your dentist in Cape Coral, you can restore your natural smile with crowns and bridges.

For many people, it is hard to avoid the urge to drink sugar filled soda, or other beverages.  Gulf Coast Smiles is taking steps to educate patients that consuming carbonated beverages every day may be harming your teeth more than you realize. Living in a fast food era, it is hard for people to avoid the urge to drink sugar filled soda.  Many people will go for their favorite soft drink, instead of water.

Soda doesn’t just contain empty calories—it also contains sugars that can harm enamel, which is the protective shell around your teeth.  Over time, exposing dental enamel to carbonated beverages and non-carbonated canned ice tea weakens and permanently destroys enamel, according to the Academy of General Dentistry.

Approximately 27 percent of the beverages that are consumed by Americans are soft drinks, which have steadily increased over the years and continue to rise.  As a result, oral health problems—mainly cavities—have continued to rise every year.  Repeated exposure over a long period of time increases your risk of getting a cavity.  While drinking through a stray might help reduce the amount of soda that comes into direct contact with your teeth, it is not the best solution.

Your dentist in Cape Coral recommends that you rinse your mouth out with water after drinking soft drinks in order to rinse out some of the sugars left behind.  Your Cape Coral dentist also recommends brushing your teeth with toothpaste that contains fluoride in order to help in preventing further damage from these sugars. However, the best solution is to cut out soft drinks altogether to further protect your teeth from harmful sugars.

Take the next step toward protecting your teeth from harmful dental erosion by contacting Gulf Coast Smiles to schedule an appointment today.