Did you know that your jawbone starts to thin after tooth loss? Under normal circumstances, your roots stimulate the foundation of your mouth each time you bite down to maintain its strength and structure. When they go missing, the jaw weakens and can eventually become too frail to support any remaining teeth. Dental implants are the only treatment that is embedded in your jaw to prevent this.
But tooth loss can also affect your overall well-being, including your heart health, and you might wonder whether these replacement teeth can help. Continue reading to learn more about it!
How Does Tooth Loss Affect Heart Health?
Gaps in your grin can impact more than ‘just’ your oral condition. They also make it easier for unhealthy bacteria in your mouth to penetrate your connective tissues or jawbone. If left untreated, this can trigger an infection that enters your bloodstream and travels to other areas of your body. This chronic inflammation can contribute to more serious concerns, like pancreatic cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and heart problems.
In fact, sources estimate that patients missing multiple teeth may be between 23% and 66% more likely to suffer serious consequences of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks, which can be fatal.
How Do Dental Implants Work?
Many experts consider dental implants the ideal way to rebuild smiles because of their unique advantages. Unlike dentures and bridges, these replacement teeth include a support rod that’s surgically placed in your jaw to function like a root. It can take several months to recover from this procedure because your mouth must form enough new bone to fuse with the pole in a process called osseointegration.
Once you’ve healed sufficiently, your dentist uses these posts to anchor a customized restoration, such as a dental crown, bridge, or dentures, based on the number of missing teeth.
Can Getting Dental Implants Improve My Condition?
Dental implants are not considered a treatment for heart disease, but there’s a chance this treatment could potentially improve your condition. This is partly because you may be more likely to brush and floss consistently to maintain your new tooth, which reduces the risks of developing gum disease or other oral infections. Furthermore, because your new tooth effectively closes the space in your smile, bacteria may be less likely to penetrate your sensitive tissues to cause problems.
With that said, it’s essential that patients with heart concerns share their full medical history, including any procedures and medications they’re taking, with their provider before surgery to avoid potentially adverse complications. In some cases, additional antibiotics must be administered or prescriptions adjusted prior to surgery.
If you’re considering dental implants but are unsure whether your heart is healthy enough to undergo the procedure, you can learn more by consulting your dentist!
About the Practice
Patients with Framingham Dental Group benefit from a team of dental healthcare experts eager to help them build and maintain beautiful, healthy smiles. With general dentists, an endodontist, and a periodontist on staff, they collaborate to provide a comprehensive menu of services. Their compassionate approach, combined with advanced technology, enables them to safely place and restore dental implants in the office for a more comfortable, streamlined experience. You can request an appointment on the website or by calling (508) 872-0041.
