Whether you lost a tooth falling off your bike, taking a softball to the face, or by simply not taking care of your smile properly, that missing tooth is probably a source of embarrassment. Maybe you hide your mouth behind your hand when you smile, or you refuse to laugh loudly or yawn in front of other people. Unfortunately, lowered self-esteem and confidence might be the least of your worries when it comes to missing teeth. Here are three embarrassing problems you could experience if you don’t get that missing tooth replaced.
1. Problems Speaking
Talking is second nature, so you may not realize the essential role the teeth play in forming the sounds that make up our spoken language. For example, slowly say the sentence, “The store was out of milk,” paying attention to every time your lips or tongue come into contact with your teeth. If those teeth are missing, your speech could end up sounding slurred or lisped.
2. Difficulty Eating
Again, because eating is second nature, you may not notice that you use your front teeth to tear and bite food and your back teeth to chew. That means no matter where that missing tooth is, it can seriously impede your ability to bite and chew your food normally.
3. More Missing Teeth
If you already have a missing tooth, you are far more likely to lose additional teeth. There are a number of reasons why this phenomenon occurs, including:
- Loss of jawbone tissue around the lost tooth could weaken the support structure of neighboring teeth, making them more likely to loosen or fall out.
- Conditions that led to the first missing tooth, such as poor dental hygiene or excessive intake of dietary sugar, will continue to claim other teeth unless steps are taken to improve your daily dental care routine.
Rather than run the risk of embarrassing speech problems, eating problems, or, worst of all, a toothless grin that’ll have you looking old before your time, talk to your dentist about replacing that missing tooth with a dental implant or dental bridge.
ABOUT YOUR KELLER, TX DENTIST:
Brent Cornelius DDS provides patients of every age with comfortable dental care. To learn more about our comprehensive treatments, which include general, cosmetic, restorative dentistry, and sedation dentistry, in addition to dental implants, contact us today at 817-431-4200. We offer compassionate care to patients from Keller, TX, as well as Roanoke, Trophy Club, Southlake, Westlake, North Richland Hills, and surrounding areas.
